Natsu Dragneel - Dragon Knight
by GrizP
Summary: Team Natsu is coming back from a job when they decide Natsu is no longer wanted on the team. He realizes that he has put off some important things for too long and leaves to attend to them. He comes back a totally different person, but there is still that goofy Dragon Slayer that everyone loves in there. Natsu/Erza. May or may not include Levy and Mira.
1. Chapter 1

**I'm not too sure about this one. If I get a good response from it I will continue it. I've kind of hit a black on RFC and I needed something else to work on in the mean time. I am not abandoning RFC, but it will be a while before it is updated again.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to anything besides the original material in this fan** _ **fiction**_ **. No money is being made off of this.**

Fairy Tail was not only the strongest Wizard's Guild in Fiore, it was also the rowdiest, and most destructive one too. It was most often billed for the destruction it caused, which caused more than a few shed tears from the Guildmaster. Brawls were common place in the guild hall and were usually caused by the rowdiest, most destructive, and least worried about it all, pink haired wizard in the guild. His name in Natsu Dragneel. He is one the only known dragon slayers in the country, likely the world.

Natsu was a part of what was known as Team Natsu, which he named himself. The team also included Erza Scarlet, wielder of magic known as The Knight, which let her requip not only her weapons, like usual, but she could also requip her armour as well. Each set of armour had a different ability or buff that it granted and being able to swap between them in an instant was a definite advantage in battle. Erza was also accepted as the most powerful member of the team.

Gray Fullbuster was another member of Team Natsu, even if he would never call it that. He was an Ice-Make wizard, which used the power of his imagination to make non-living things out of ice, usually weapons and walls to use as shields. His magic was directly opposed to Natsu's, as he was a Fire Dragon Slayer, which caused a lot of conflict between the two. It was actually the two of them that most often started the brawls in the guild hall. It didn't help that his power was said to be equal to his arch rivals.

Lucy was the final person in the foursome that made up Team Natsu, as long as you were only counting human's anyways. She was a Celestial wizard, her magic allowed her to call forth Spirits from the spirit realm to do her bidding by using keys to open their gate. They used contracts to make sure that they spirit was not abused, nor was the wizard. She was the weakest of the group in combat and magical strength, but she was by no means a weak link like most people assumed when they saw her with the other three. She was also the least likely to cause any amount of property damage or cause a brawl.

Three of the four people in the team were rather upset on the walk back to the guild from the train station. They had just gotten back from a job that should have taken a couple of days, but due to some serious destruction, they ended up with a two week stay in jail and the loss of the entire reward for the job they completed. Gray was fairly used to it, having worked with Natsu quite often in the past, but was still pissed off at Natsu. Lucy and Erza were both steaming mad at the pink haired Dragon Slayer, both were stomping along in front of him to avoid hitting him in retaliation and their conversation went completely unnoticed.

Natsu was walking along behind the other members, his friend Happy was floating along above him, he was completely unconcerned with the entire ordeal they just went through. His hands were laced behind his head, eyes closed and leaning back a little to turn his face up to feel the sun. He was happy, very happy, the weather was nice, he was full for once, and he was able to spend time with his friends. It was that last part the put the his huge, signature grin, plastered on his face.

That was until he came to an abrupt stop after running into something immovable and covered in metal. Natsu stood up, rubbing his sore tail bone, and realized the immovable metal object was, in fact, not an object, it was Erza Scarlet. Before he could open his mouth to ask what the hell was going on, she turned on him with a deep, scary scowl set on her face.

Natsu would usually be shaking in his boots, sandals, seeing that expression on her face, but this time he somehow could sense that it was something serious. Another clue was that Lucy had the same look plastered on her face, which was almost as scary because it was something that you didn't see on Lucy's face all that often. Sure she got mad, but it was never like this, this time she was truly enraged.

"Natsu, we need to talk about something." Erza said as sternly as she could manage, holding back her rage quite well, in her mind, Natsu could sense it though.

Natsu let out a deep suffering sigh, "I assume you and Lucy have been talking and you've decided that you no longer want me on your team." He looked up at both of their shocked looks with a smirk, "Ah, so I'm right then. You knew that there was no way Gray would be on my side if I tried to fight it and three against one will usually fall in favour of the three." Natsu had a subdued grimace on his face at the shocked nods he got in response.

"Well yes that is exactly what we wanted and our thought process on the matter." Erza crossed her arms and tried to look menacing, despite her growing unease at the situation. The moment Natsu guessed exactly what they were going to say she started to have second thoughts. "Is there anything you would like to say on the matter?"

Both Lucy and Gray looked fairly interested what his response would be. Gray was looking at him as if he had never seen him before. This perceptive Natsu was a new thing for him. Lucy also noticed this new side of Natsu. She always thought he was a goofball with no real depth, besides how much he cared for everyone in Fairy Tail and his fighting ability. He was showing how smart and perceptive he really was and it was rather attractive to her, but she had likely ruined any chance that she had with him by effectively kicking him out of the team he started.

"Not really about you kicking me out of the team. I do have requests of you though, as my friends." Natsu carefully looked all three of them in the eyes as Happy looked on, somewhere between horrified and amused, he was well aware of what Natsu was really capable of.

"We are still your friends Natsu, we just don't want to do go on jobs with you anymore. We are tired of losing most of our money and getting arrested or chased out of town by Rune Knights. We will still see each other at the guild and other events in Magnolia." Lucy expressed emphatically, trying to make sure that he knew she wasn't trying to distance herself from him.

"Actually we won't. I have been putting off doing some things that I need to do because I was enjoying our time as a team. My requests are that you let Old Man Makarov know that I'm going to be leaving like we talked about and that someone take Happy in with them while I'm gone since there is no way he will be able to follow me where I'm headed."

Everyone else's jaw dropped in shock when Natsu said that. Everyone else knew that Happy was the closest thing you could get to Natsu's son. Happy went everywhere with Natsu, it was almost like he asked them to look after his right hand while he was away. It was at least as surprising that Happy didn't freak out at him when Natsu mentioned that he would be leaving him behind.

"Are you leaving Fairy Tail?!" Erza screeched at Natsu, looking like she was about ready to beat some sense into him.

"Don't be silly Erza. I'm not leaving Fairy Tail. I'm just going to be leaving for a little while, doing some training and exploring a few leads on where Igneel is." Natsu laughed at the open look of relief on both Lucy and Erza's faces, he even noticed a little bit of sadness and disappointment on their faces. Gray did his best to hide his relief behind a smirk.

There were a few beats of silence while Natsu looked at each of his ex-teammates in turn. They were obviously waiting for him to shout out that it was just a joke and he was messing with them. It wasn't going to happen though, they were about to realize that this was happening, whether they liked it or not.

"Alright, when will you be back?" Erza asked quietly, suddenly realizing how much she'll miss the pink haired idiot and how much of an important part of her life he had become since they first became a team.

"I have absolutely no idea when I'll be back. There is no timeline for the training I'm doing. Each individual part needs to be completely mastered before I move on to the next step, so it could be anywhere from three months to several years." Natsu answered, trying not to give them any false hope.

Lucy was uncharacteristically quiet during this whole thing while Gray was doing his best to be unfailingly attentive without seeming like it. Erza's face was showing more and more sadness as the conversation went on, almost like the situation was truly settling in her mind.

As Natsu watched the old, strong, unbending Erza returned and her face set in a determined grimace. "Fine, I hope you return to us soon, but I understand why you need to do this. Please don't stay away any longer than you need to." Erza let her vulnerable side show to the only person that she had since Jellal, not begging him, but making sure that she wanted to see him as soon as possible.

Erza then looked at Lucy, getting a nod to her unasked question, she looked at Happy and asked, "Well Happy, would you like to stay with me or Lucy? Or maybe someone else?" She looked like she would rather not have Happy to look after, but she was willing to do it, for Natsu.

"Aye! I'll stay with Lucy. She always has fish for me at her house." Happy quickly lost his serious demeanor at his own mention of fish.

Erza didn't quite let out a breath of relief, but it was a near thing. She really didn't want to be responsible for another person on top of all her current duties in Fairy Tail as an S-Class Wizard. Besides that, if she wanted to continue to be stronger than Natsu, if she even was, she would have to train just as hard as she knew that he would be training.

With his piece said Natsu pulled out three black bracers similar to the one he wore on his arm and handed them off to both girls. They looked down at the dragon that was etched into the black metal, thinking it looked faintly familiar, but they weren't inclined to ask, just in case that would set him off. Gray got one too, but his looked significantly more manly in it's design.

Gray wasn't as reserved as the girls and asked, "What's with the dragon face on this thing? And why are you giving them to us?"

"That is the crest of my magic, the face is Igneel's. These are basically monitors. If something happens to you they will notify me. I should be able to make it where ever you are before anything else happens. In times of extreme need you can send a message to me through it, but unless it's something really serious I will not come. I know that Fairy Tail can handle itself, you are all strong in your own way." Natsu answered, seeing understanding and happiness bloom on the girls face while Gray just smiled instead of smirking at him.

With his part said Natsu turned from the trio of friends and left Magnolia, heading towards his and Happy's cottage in the woods. He needed to pick up the items he needed for training before he left. He wasn't very good with saying goodbye, so he didn't answer the rather watery sounding goodbye's that were offered by the girls. He chose to ignore the smell of their tears in the air and waved over his shoulder without looking back, he wouldn't be able to deny the tears in his eyes if he turned around.

Natsu didn't take the chances of running across anyone else before he left town and went directly to the forest, avoiding going through the town to the head of the trail that led to his cottage. He was glad when he came to the back side of his cottage. He could smell that there were others waiting in front of the building. From the scents he detected it was Mirajane, the beautiful bartender of Fairy Tail, and Cana, the drunken card mage. Natsu spared a thought to wonder why they came to try and convince him to stay, but no more than a thought.

Natsu was never happier that he had installed in the back door without telling anyone. He carefully swung the well oiled door open and wandered through his home quietly picking up all of the things he would need for his journey, including all the fish that Happy had stored away, mostly to spite the flying blue cat for all the pranks he's pulled in the past.

Natsu managed to get everything that he needed out of the house without alerting the two out front. He left with a smile, it was nice to know that his friends cared so much for him. The only thing was that he didn't want to make Mira cry, nor did he want to hear the drunken rambling from Cana, even if she was funny and interesting when she did it.

He didn't look back even once at the life he was leaving, or taking a hiatus from at least. He was looking forward to mastering the things left to him by Igneel. He would finish his Dragon Slayer training and make sure that he would be ready in the event of a dragon attack. Igneel left without saying so much as a peep about it, but he did explain the next step of his training to him a couple months before that. Looking back, Natsu realized that he probably knew about having to leave and made sure that Natsu was prepared for it.

It was time to head home. Back to the place where it all started for Natsu, the mountains north of a place that was once called Rosemary Village.

 **Several Years Later**

 _Fairy Tail Guild Hall_

"I thought this is where the Salamander was supposed to be." Gajeel roared across the guild. He had joined after their defeat at the stupid knight's hand, but only because he needed to prove that he was the stronger Dragon Slayer. Salamander had disappeared with the title and until a body showed up, it would stay that way.

"Shut up metal head! We've told you almost every day that we don't know where Natsu is or when he'll be back. You will just have to wait like the rest of us." Gray called out to the Iron Dragon Slayer, hoping to shut him up about Natsu for the day.

Gray would never admit it, but he was anxious for Natsu to return as well. He had spent every spare second that he had training, only taking just enough jobs to have enough money to get by without dipping into his savings. He had pretty much gotten rid of his stripping problem as well, he only did it when he was really stressed. Well, he actually just never wore a shirt anymore, but he could keep his pants on a large majority of the time now.

Gray hadn't changed a whole lot in the absence of Natsu, at least not physically. Sure, he had a few more scars, but they only tell a story, they don't change a person. He wore his hair a little longer now than he used to. His pants were a little more durable now, but they are still black and he still wore his black combat boots. Most importantly he still wore the bracer that was given to him and his necklace that he had worn for as long as anyone could remember.

Erza sighed from beside him, she was much better at ignoring Gajeel's rants about Natsu than Gray was. She didn't, however, like being reminded about Natsu's absence and it seemed like Gajeel needed to be reminded of that. She turned her most menacing glare on the black haired man that was sitting at a table a little way away.

Erza was wearing the same armour that she had always worn. She wasn't as closed off to everyone as she used to be, not since the Tower of Heaven incident. Her long red hair still hung down to her lower back and looked as soft and luscious as always. Her skin was still milky pale and completely beautiful. Her curves were still just as generous and mind numbingly gorgeous. Her chest and backside attracted many surreptitious stares since no one wanted to be caught by Erza Scarlet, Titania of Fairy Tail. Erza had long ago decided that the only people she would let look at her like that were Natsu and maybe the Red Knight that saved them from both Phantom Lord and the Tower of Heaven.

Gajeel quickly got his little tantrum under control in the face of that glare. He was starting to sweat a little since Erza still hadn't broken the glare, making sure that her message completely sank in. Gajeel definitely didn't want to tangle with her, she was said to be even stronger than Salamander and that was before she was doing the intense training that she did since he left. He wasn't willing to try fighting her until he was sure that he could beat Salamander.

Gajeel hadn't changed much since the Red Knight beat him and the rest of the Element Four into the ground. He still had long black hair and piercings in his nose, ears, and eyebrows. His shirt had some metal accessories and his pants were a steel grey, his favourite color behind black. Now he was one of the little Fairies he tried to hurt when he was part of Phantom Lord, but that wasn't a big deal since he noticed the Guild Mark on that knight's armour. He knew that this was a guild that he wanted to be part of if they had members that were as strong as that guy.

The whole guild was rather lively today. There were no brawls, as there was no one that started now that Natsu was gone, but most everyone was at the guild drinking. No one wanted to be away from the guild for the S-Class selection trial announcement. It was too late for the last minute mission rush and so everyone just stayed at the guild in hopes that what they had already done would be enough. Mira was almost run off of her feet trying to keep everyone in their preferred drinks, but being this busy took her mind of their missing Dragon Slayer and that was alright with her.

The entire guild went quiet when Master Makarov Dreyar showed up on the stage at the end of the hall. "Hey, are you brats ready for the S-Class Trial contestants?!" He yelled across the guild, making sure everyone was able to hear.

"YEAH!" The entire guild roared back, completely drowning out whatever Makarov had started to say.

"Alright, shut up, brats!" Makarov used his Titan magic to yell back over top of his guild. "So we have five people up for the selection, as always. They will be Gray Fullbuster, Cana Alberona, Levy McGarden, Lucy Heartfellia, and-"

Master Makarov was interrupted by the doors being blown open with enough force to crack the walls that held the doors up, which was impressive since they were designed to withstand the destruction that Gildarts always caused when he was around.

"Who the hell are you? It's not manly to burst into a Guild Hall that's not yours." Elfman yelled while striking a pose, one hand on the flexing bicep of his other arm.

The shadowed figure in the doorway let out a deep belly laugh that sounded really familiar to everyone that wasn't new to the guild and even a couple of the new people recognized it as someone they had met before.

"Last I checked I still had the guild mark on my shoulder. That means this is my guild Elfman, so why don't you shut up!"

This time everyone definitely recognized the voice and various calls of "Natsu!?" rang out through the guild hall with one "Salamander?!" and a "Matchstick?!" thrown in from two people that were both happy and pissed that Natsu showed up when he did.

"Yeah, it's good to be home." Natsu released a relaxed sigh as he threw his bag onto the chair closest to him.

It was then that a scarlet haired woman, a blue haired girl, and a white haired bartender all flung themselves from the crowd and ran at him full tilt. Natsu wasn't really expecting anything like this to happen for his welcome and was afraid that he was about to be tackled and pummeled. He shouldn't have worried to much about it though because all three of the ladies did tackle him, but in a hug filled with crying and whispered words.

If you had asked anyone if Natsu knew what to do with crying girls before he left, they all would have started laughing in your face at the sheer insanity of what you had just asked them, but this new Natsu seemed to know exactly what to do. He wrapped his arms around all three and squeezed gently, but still firm enough for them to know that he cared greatly for them. While that was probably good enough, he also whispered comforting words back to them in response to their whispers.

The entire guild stood their in either shocked silence, or in most female cases, complete awe at how absolutely romantic and adorable the entire thing was. Nobody wanted to interrupt the moment the three were obviously having because Mira and Levy both suddenly disengaged and backed away from what was now an enraged Erza.

"Natsu, you said you would come if we needed you!" She yelled as she hailed her fists down on Natsu's upper body, not wanting to damage the sexy face that she had missed so much. "You never came though! We had no one to rely on. Even when _I_ almost died, you still never showed up!" Now Erza was barely able to support herself with her arms on Natsu's chest, that's how hard she was sobbing.

Natsu, completely unharmed from the assault somehow, wrapped his arms tightly around her body and held her to his chest while she cried out her sorrow. She resisted at first, but all of the strength she had gained over years of brutal training had suddenly fled in the face of her emotions, so she balled up the shirt that Natsu was wearing and let her tears flow into the fabric.

Erza's sobs started to become less frequent and were separated by some sniffles when Natsu finally replied to her, "Erza, I showed up every single time you were even remotely close to in danger, but I only had to save you three times in the entire time that I was gone. Your so strong that I didn't need to step in any of the other times. That's not counting the time that you tried to end it yourself by taking on an enemy that was far too strong for even the great Titania."

Erza's breath caught in her throat at that. No one else knew about that time, not even her sometimes lovers Levy and Mirajane. She had told no one and the only other person there was the Red Knight that had saved her… Wait did that mean that Natsu knew who the knight was? She looked up sharply to question him about the Red Knight when she saw it. It was the helm that the knight wore. It was fashioned out of some strange dull red material that both refused to reflect light, but shone with the dull glow of a fire. Its shape was that of a dragon with glowing red eyes and teeth bared in a vicious snarl.

Before she could get any other words out to confront Natsu on just what the hell was going on, her eyes rolled up into the back of her head and she fainted. Natsu caught her gently before she smashed her nose into his tightly muscled chest. At first he was worried, but then he caught the quiet sound of her cute little snores and figured that she was going to be okay. He let a gentle smile grace his face that was somehow filled with more genuine feeling than his old signature grin could ever hope to hold.

Natsu moved Erza to be cradled in his arms, one supporting her head and neck, the other in the crook of her knees, all without jostling her any more than necessary. Then he stood up and let the smile fall from his face, but not before Levy and Mira saw it, causing answering smiles to grace their own faces.

Natsu was going to leave with just Erza when he caught the look on the other two's faces. He looked carefully at them before he caught both of their scents on Erza and his eyes widened at the implications. After a quick bout of deep eye contact he nodded to them, then turned on his heel and left, only to be followed rapidly by the bartender and the bookworm, who was kind enough to grab the bag that he completely forgot about.

Natsu led them all to his cottage that he had stopped by and cleaned out before he headed to the Guild. Erza was starting to wriggle a little bit by the time they had gotten inside the cottage. Natsu knew that she would wake up soon, but he didn't want to risk her waking and freaking out being in his arms. So with that in mind he took her to his room and deposited her in his bed, pulling his blankets up to her chin and letting her rest.

He walked back into his living room shortly after with a tray of tea and cookies for his other two guests. They let him pour their tea and sit down before they started in on the questions. He laughed quietly to himself as he saw Levy getting ready to write down any answers that she thought needed further study. Mira was practically bouncing in her seat with excitement, whether it was from his return or the promise of answers to her questions, he would never know.

"Natsu are you really the Red Knight?" Mira asked before Levy could ask some unnecessarily complicated question

"Is that what they call me here?" Natsu laughed at the simple name they gave him, "But yeah, I suppose I am. It's something that all Dragon Slayers are capable of after their training is complete. It's something that we gain once we have completed the Dragon Force transformation."

Natsu raised both hands to show them that nothing was on either one. Then there was a flash of dull red light and he had gauntlets covering his hands. They were made of the same material as the helmet that he showed them earlier. The fingers were made of small, articulated plates, that allowed him to move his them with no restrictions, but they ended in sharp claws, perfect for hand to hand combat.

"So you can use Requip magic then?" Levy asked excitedly, it wasn't often that someone as young as Natsu was capable of using more than one type of magic to that extent.

"Well not exactly, but it is kind of similar." Natsu avoided completely answering the question, just giving enough to placate her for a little bit, he smelled something that made him smile.

 _Natsu's Bedroom_

Erza's eyes fluttered open slowly. At first she thought about the strange dream that she just had. In her dream Natsu had returned and revealed himself as the Red Knight that had saved both her and Fairy Tail. It was a completely ridiculous thought, but it made her happy to think that it was in fact Natsu that had saved her, just like he said he would when he left.

It was then that she noticed she wasn't in her room at Fairy Hills. The ceiling here didn't have the Fairy Tail emblem like hers did, nor did she see the tower stacks of trashy novels that she always had near her bed. She was starting to get worried about what was going on. She took a couple of deep breaths to center herself and quell the rising panic. She couldn't quite place the scent that she smelled, but it worked to calm her down far faster than she expected.

With the question of where she was and what that scent was in mind she decided to get up and look around. She realized that she was still dressed as she was when she woke up that morning and let out a breath that she didn't know she was holding. Being dressed meant that she wasn't taken by slavers or any other scoundrels. The room reminded her of Natsu's cottage, she had only been there a couple times to get Natsu for a mission, but the room looked like it was made of the same wood. It wasn't until she looked in the closet and saw several sets of the clothes that Natsu used to wear that she realized she was in fact in Natsu's room.

Erza went through a whole gauntlet of emotions at that, including glee, anger, sadness, more anger, confusion, and finally ending on a mix of happiness and confusion. Happy that Natsu was obviously back, but confused about if he was really the Red Knight. Erza wasn't really one to hum and haw about a decision that needed to be made, she made the decision and dealt with the consequences as they arose. So she marched out of Natsu's room and headed to where she could faintly hear voices coming from.

She requiped into a set of stealth armour that would make her steps quiet and help her blend into the shadows. After all, just because she made a decision didn't mean that she had to run headlong into possible trouble. She edged up close to the entrance to the room that she heard the voices coming from.

She heard Levy's voice asking someone if they could use Requip magic. That was definitely a good sign on top of recognizing the room as Natsu's living room. She still didn't know if it was really Natsu that she was talking to and she didn't really want to reveal that she was awake until she knew exactly what was going on.

She froze when she heard the voice she had been waiting for years to hear, it was definitely Natsu's voice that answered Levy.

"Well not exactly, but it is kind of similar." Natsu avoided going into detail with his denial.

Then Natsu called out, "Erza, come in here and have some tea. I'm sure you want to hear this as much as Levy and Mira do."

Erza stood there, mouth dropped open into an 'o' of surprise. How in the hell did he know that she was there? She knew that she hadn't made a sound and she was almost completely shrouded in shadows, so he couldn't have seen her. _'What did I miss?!'_ She thought frantically, trying to figure it out so she could fix it for last time and completely forgetting about the others inside the room.

She was standing there worrying her bottom lip with her teeth when Natsu found her. He had to stop and admire her form when he came upon her. Her stealth armour was a form fitting black catsuit, like a ninja would wear in the movies. It was a wonderful form too. Her breasts sat high on her chest and showed a distinct lack of bra, if the twin points were anything to judge by, but Natsu didn't know what the two little bumps were on either side of each larger bump.

Natsu focused on that conundrum for a small bit of time before moving on down her lithe form to her long, sexy legs and then back up to her curvaceous hips. Her backside was absolutely entrancing to Natsu, especially the way she was standing, hips cocked to the side with one hand resting on one hip. Her other hand was pressed against the opposite shoulder blade, splitting her breasts and making them look even larger.

Natsu shook himself from his silent contemplation of Erza's ridiculously hot body. He couldn't get caught starting at her while she wasn't paying attention, well not if he wanted to have a civil conversation with her today. With that in mind, Natsu looked into her deep chocolate brown eyes that were so expressive despite her closed off heart.

It made him smile that Erza was still so dedicated to bettering herself, but he knew he had to interrupt her thoughts or she would be stuck like that until she figured it out.

"It was your scent Erza." She answered him with a distracted hum and he continued, "You managed to completely hide the sound of your movement and we can't see through walls. It was your scent that gave you away."

Erza snapped out of her trance and snapped her head up at Natsu, only to blush at how close he was to her. She would only have to lean forward a little and she could capture his lips in the kiss that she had been waiting so long for. Before she could act Natsu backed away a little and she had to work to hide the disappointment at the missed opportunity.

That was when what he said really connected in her head, "Wait, how do you know what my scent is after all these years?"

"How could I forget your scent?" Natsu grinned back and she couldn't keep the light blush of her face, "I mean sure, Levy and Mira both left their mark on you, but your base scent is still the same. Still a perfect blend of strawberries and vanilla and just a little hint of steel polish. It's intoxicating." Natsu quickly slapped a hand over his mouth. He didn't mean to let that last tidbit out.

Erza's light blush erupted into a fierce red that matched her hair. Her natural reaction to pummel him into the ground was stopped halfway by the realization that Natsu was as attracted to her scent. Did that mean that he was attracted to the rest of her too? She started to move into her contemplation stance as she followed that rabbit hole down.

She was startled out of her reverie by Natsu again, but this time he didn't bother with trying to talk to her. He just moved behind her, placed his hands on her shoulders and steered her into the living room, right to the couch that held the other two ladies. When she sat down between them and they moved close enough that their sides were touching Natsu went back to his chair and flopped into it with a grin.

With everyone present, Natsu elaborated on his earlier answer, "So what I do with my armour is similar to requiping it, but I don't use a pocket dimension like you do Erza. My armour resides in my soul when I'm not using it." Natsu reveled in the confusion on the three girls faces, for once he knew something that they didn't.

Levy's confusion quickly fled and her thirst for knowledge replaced it, "How does that work?" She held her pen poised over her note paper.

"It's part of my magic. To be a true Dragon Slayer you must have part of a dragon's soul within you. The armour is the embodiment of that soul and it only become available after you've managed to bring out the power of that soul. Dragon Force. That's why pieces of the armour take on the features of the dragon that gave up the piece of soul within you." Natsu answered with as succinctly as possible.

"Alright that makes sense, but what about people like Laxus that have the dragon lacrima implanted in them?" Mira asked, barely beating Levy to the question.

"Unfortunately Laxus will never be able to progress to the Knight stage. His magic is provided by a lacrima that a Dragon Slayer has poured their magic into, with a small portion of their soul. He can probably enter the first two stages of Dragon Force, but it's unlikely that he will ever get passed that stage without finding a lightning dragon willing to give up piece of it's soul and time for training. Since all the dragon's aside from Acnologia disappeared July 7th, X777."

"So does that mean that I can't try your armour?" Erza pouted on the couch, it looked so awesome too.

Levy and Mira both sighed at the red head's words. Neither one could believe that was all she took away from the whole conversation. Natsu let out a deep rumbling laugh that was different from the laughter he used to unleash at every possible opportunity.

The sound sent shivers down all the girls spine's. It wasn't scary though, it was unbelievably sexy. Erza was still waiting for her answer though and Natsu noticed her intent stare.

"No you can't try my armour. Even if I could take it off without it disappearing back to my soul, it wouldn't even come close to fitting you." Natsu watched as Erza's face fell even further, "I did happen to make you a set of armour though that will be similar in material. I don't know what kind of magical properties it will have, but it's likely completely immune to fire, aside from my own."

Erza looked up with a look of undisguised glee, "Really? Completely immune to fire?" Natsu answered with a small smile and a nod, "How is that possible? My Flame Empress armour is the best that money could buy and it only cuts the power of the attacks down by half." Erza had quickly gotten over her remaining shyness.

"Well it is made from the scales of the Fire Dragon King. Not a whole lot of fire or anything people consider hot will affect something made out of Igneel's scales." Natsu laughed at the dumfounded look on both Levy and Erza's face.

Mira just looked at Natsu with a content smile. She hadn't realized how much she missed him until he came back. They were never that close, it was Lisanna that was really close to Natsu. Natsu had a much larger impact on the guild than anyone else thought. Mira had noticed that there were a lot of ladies at the hall that were much quieter and far less involved with everything without Natsu being there.

Natsu watched as Levy and Erza started to debate the pros and cons that came with a full suit of fire proof armour. Natsu wasn't sure that their really was a con to being fire proof, it had never been a bad thing for him after all. He let them continue their conversation until it became obvious to him that they weren't going to be stopping anytime soon.

"Erza. Erza! I'm going to need your measurements to adjust the armour. You've, uh, grown since the last time I saw you." Natsu rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"It shouldn't make that big of a deal. I'm only an inch taller." Erza was completely oblivious to Natsu's embarrassment and Mira's tittering because of it.

Natsu shot a pleading look at Mira. Silently begging her to help him out. He watched as Mira debated how much she fun she would get out of watching Natsu try to subtly hint at Erza's expanded womanly assets and Erza's complete lack of understanding. It was incredible in and of itself that Natsu was being subtle. Eventually Mira decided that it would be better to help Natsu out.

Erza was still looking at Natsu in confusion when Mira spoke up, "Erza, honey, he's talking about your chest and hips. He's been gone long enough that it's a huge difference for him."

Erza's mouth dropped open in surprise, as did Levy's, neither one would have thought that Natsu would even notice something like that.

Levy really wanted to say something about that, but she couldn't get her mind to cooperate. It was entirely stuck on what Natsu thought about her growth. She had almost no curves when he had left. She didn't have a huge chest, or an hourglass figure, now either, but she definitely had come curves now. Her constant research and lugging huge books around had toned her muscles quite nicely, causing a flat stomach and nicely defined legs. While squatting and climbing ladders in the library had turned her butt into a firm, perfectly curved heart-shaped ass to die for. Levy's chest had grown to at least a C cup as well, but she wore loose-chested clothes to kind of hid it from everyone else, besides Mira and Erza of course. In short, Levy didn't have large curves, but what she did have definitely fit her body perfectly, her chest even looked large on her petit frame.

"Well I thought I estimated her growth well enough, but I still think it will be a little too small. If it makes you feel better, Levy can take the measurements and give them to me. I can have it adjusted by tomorrow." Natsu offered up to Erza.

Levy noticed the blush start to grow on Erza's face and got a wicked idea that brought a smirk to her face. "Actually Natsu, I don't think I would be the best one to do it. I think you should since you're the one that will actually be using them." Her smirk grew when she heard Erza gasp and Mira snicker.

Natsu's face grew warm and he could feel the blush creeping up his neck. He forced it down, not wanting to let Levy and Mira see his discomfort at the thought. "If Erza is comfortable with that, then we can do it." Natsu shot back at Levy, betting on Erza still being shy and backing out of that idea.

Erza mastered herself as quickly as she could, forcing her mouth to move despite her embarrassment and arousal that the thought of Natsu measuring her.

"I think I can handle that. I trust you Natsu." Erza sent an unsure smile at Natsu, hoping that he was actually okay with it. "I would really like to talk to you alone anyways." Natsu nodded lightly, knowing it was going to be about him being the Red Knight.

Erza accepted the nod gratefully before getting up and looking at the other two girls, "As much as I trust and care for you guys, there are somethings that I need to deal with on my own."

Levy and Mira grabbed a hand each and held it comfortingly, sending moral support to the third of their trio. They knew this was going to be hard on Erza and they were extremely proud of her for putting herself out there. It helped that Natsu was the only man she trusted now that they knew he was the Red Knight. Jellal had once ranked among her trusted, but he had ruined that with killing Simon in the Tower of Heaven, whether he was being controlled or not.

"I'll see you guys later, right?" Erza asked uncertainly. They had talked about her confessing to Natsu before and how it would affect their relationship. Both girls had said that she had to do it and they wouldn't hold her back from the man she had realized she loved. Erza knew that she loved her girls too, though and was going to talk to Natsu about them as well. Neither Levy, nor Mira would admit that they had realized their love for Natsu, but Erza knew that they did, just based on how they all talked about him together.

With the thought of trying to get the other girls to either admit that they love Natsu, or at least admire him, on her mind, Erza followed Natsu out the back door that she didn't know he had. She was starting to get nervous about where they were going when he entered the woods behind his house, but then she saw the smoke rising from just a little way past the first trees. It turned out to be a full smithy that Natsu had somehow set up in secret. It seems Natsu had a lot of secrets that he had never even hinted at before.

Erza was drawn out of her thoughts of Natsu and secrets when he pushed open the door and waved her in, saying, "After you."


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to anything besides the original material in this fan** _ **fiction**_ **. No money is being made off of this.**

 **DdraigTrueEmperor9** **: Ages are as follows: Natsu – 19, Levy – 20, Mira – 21, Erza – 21.**

 **Thanks to everyone for the reviews. I'm not answering any directly unless they actually ask a question. On a side note, I will not be changing the pairings, but some other people may join in sporadically and not on a permanent basis. Although, I was thinking about adding one more, I'm still undecided on who though.**

Erza was impressed with the workshop that Natsu had set up for himself. It was top of the line and had all the most recent advances in equipment, but at the same time still had the classic feel. She did notice that all of his equipment was new and exciting, some was the old, reliable style that looked like it was all used far more than the new stuff.

"I bought all the new stuff, just in case someone else wanted to use the workshop. I like the old school methods." Natsu answered her unasked questions.

"Who else would you let use this place?" Erza tried to keep the hope out of her voice.

Apparently she failed, if Natsu's smirk was anything to judge by, "Why don't you just ask the question you really want to ask? Three years ago I didn't like to beat around the bush, at least that much hasn't changed."

"Fine, can I use your workshop?" Erza blushed, she wasn't used to asking anybody for anything of this magnitude. She like to do things herself, except bake her strawberry cakes, she wasn't willing to chance screwing that up.

"Only if you do three small things for me." Natsu smiled in her direction, silently directing her to the small raised platform at the other end of the workshop.

"Are you sure they are only small things?" She asked suspiciously. She carefully eyed the man that she loved, even if she knew that she would do almost anything he asked, that didn't mean she wasn't suspicious.

"Yes. Number one, strip down to your underwear, hopefully it's not too revealing." Natsu didn't wait for her to answer, especially given the scowl on her face, "Number two, tell me what's all happened at the guild while I've been gone. I'll even let you stay and watch me work while you tell me. And finally, number three, tell the two girls that have your scent all over them, like theirs is all over you, that they can either come in or leave. I don't like people skulking about my home." Natsu said the last part loud enough that both girls just outside the window could hear him.

Erza didn't hear anything, but judging from the small smirk on his face, Natsu definitely heard something. Erza felt a small smile play across her face, it was nice to see Natsu again and it made her happier than she had imagined it would. Natsu didn't appear to be all that concerned with her being involved with two girls.

Erza was about to go talk to Mira and Levy, but Natsu held up his hand when she started to move. "Don't worry about it, they took off. I guess they remembered that you said you wanted to talk to me alone."

Natsu moved away from the platform and started rummaging through some drawers on one side of the workshop. Erza requiped her armour off, but left her clothes on that were underneath. Erza was a lot more cunning than she let on, and she knew this to be a perfect opportunity to tease Natsu a little bit. She was thinking tease in the most sexual context a person could think of, not like a joke.

Eventually Natsu managed to find what he was looking for, which appeared to be a tape measure. Erza waited until she knew that Natsu was watching, then she started to slowly take off her shirt, making sure that she moved as provocatively as possible, pushing her shoulders back and thrusting her chest out. Erza had never been more glad that pretty much every pair of underwear she owned would be considered sexy, nothing she owned was plain by any stretch of the imagination.

Erza was carefully watching Natsu out of the corner of her eye, hoping for some sort of reaction. She knew exactly how attractive she was and she wanted to take advantage of her body for once. She wasn't oblivious to the looks that she got from pretty much every male that she met, she just ignored them, it saved her from beating the stuffing out of them.

Erza ended up blushing when she did see the reaction that her striptease brought out of Natsu. It made her more than a little aroused when she saw the starting of a tent in his loose pants. Erza watched at the tent grew when she bent over at the waist to pull her skirt down her long, creamy legs. Unfortunately, Erza had to look away from him to completely remove the skirt.

It was when she straightened that Erza realized her mistake. She knew Natsu as the clueless, but loveable Dragon Slayer. This was not that Natsu, it was a Natsu that could use a weapon and armour even better than her and had strong enough magic to take down a member of the Wizard Saints.

Erza stiffened when she felt Natsu's hands on her shoulders and his breath on her neck. She could hear that his breathing was slightly laboured, but she was far more focused on how his hands were gently running up and down her upper arms.

"Now, Erza, you need to be careful not to start something that you can't finish." He breathed directly into her ear, eliciting a pleasured shiver from the scarlet haired woman.

"I don't know what you're talking about Natsu." Erza managed to force a calmness that she didn't feel into her voice. Inside she was fighting to not turn and give herself to the man that held her heart. She didn't want to come off as desperate and needy.

"Yes you do, Erza. Don't lie to me. I feel the need to give you this time as a free pass. While I'm not as brash as I used to act, I am still a Dragon Slayer and we are far more in tune with our instincts and baser desires than other people." Natsu moved back away to give her some breathing room.

"I didn't know that, the only other Dragon Slayer's we have are Wendy and Gajeel. Wendy would be too embarrassed to talk about that kind of stuff and Gajeel would never talk about it, even if I did think to ask." Erza had to fight down the urge to turn and throw herself at Natsu.

She heard Natsu moving around behind her, likely intending to give her time to calm her thundering heart and harsh breathing. Erza had never told anyone exactly how a commanding presence could turn her on, but it worked better than nearly anything. While Natsu was giving her time, Erza requipped her panties with an identical new pair that weren't soaked. Erza knew that Natsu's sense of smell and hearing were greater than she could even imagine and he could likely smell her arousal, but it wasn't to hide from him, it was because it would be uncomfortable to stand with soaked underwear for any length of time.

"Alright, I'm ready Natsu." Erza called out once she had calmed down, but she still didn't turn around to look at him.

"Perfect, I will need to get fairly, um, intimate with my measurements. Inner thigh, hips, waist, bust, neck, arms, and your lower leg. The armour is extremely fitted and much less revealing than you're used to, but I think I'm going to like it much better that way." Natsu was completely professional, his mask wasn't wavering, which he was happy about.

"What do you mean?" Erza glanced back over her shoulder, blush flaring to life at the sight of Natsu just wearing a leather apron on his upper body.

"I don't like the way other men leer at your body when you're wearing those risqué armours. I know that they protect you just fine, but I'm not worried about your strength." Natsu answered seriously.

Erza tried to answer, but she was completely tongue-tied by the straight forward answer she got from the pink haired Adonis behind her. She had always known that Natsu was bothered by her armour sets, he had told her as much, but she always thought it was something stupid, like he didn't like armour, or he didn't like how revealing it was, that reason had never crossed her mind.

Natsu had taken advantage of Erza being lost in thought and had measured her arms, lower legs, waist, and hips. He was just moving onto her bust when her train of thought hit the end of the line. He felt it when she stiffened at the feeling of his arms encircling her body, but he studiously ignored it. She did relax again after a moment, but her back still seemed to be stiff.

Natsu was far more serious now, but he still felt like having fun like before he left, so he carefully schooled his features before saying, "Can you hold this on your nipples for me?" He smirked when she violently flinched at his words.

Erza felt her face flame back to tomato red, she was starting to wonder if her face would be permanently red with this new Natsu around. "Wha-What?" She stuttered out, somehow.

"Your nipples are the highest point on your chest, I need that point for your armour to fit properly." Natsu didn't quite manage to keep the snicker out of his voice, "I could hold it on them for you, but then you'd have to read the actual measurement."

Erza could feel herself getting light headed at that offhand comment, most of her blood seemed to be in her face at this point. Could she really let Natsu tease her like that? More importantly, could she really back down from the obvious challenge in his offer? Both thoughts crossed her mind in a fraction of a second, quickly followed by another very important thought. _'Would it cause issues for his control if I said yes to him?'_ Erza worried her lip when that crossed her mind. God, she really, really wanted to say yes, she had thought about him touching her for nearly two full years now.

Natsu watched the debate twist her delicate features as she chased thoughts around in her head. The way that she lightly bit her lip, an apparently unconscious gesture, was absolutely adorable to Natsu. No matter how much he really wanted to just take the measurements and get started on readjusting her armour. He really didn't like the thought of her not having the protection that his armour would offer.

Erza decided that even if Natsu did lose control, it wouldn't be the end of the world. In fact, it might even be one of the best things to ever happen to her. She was usually quite forward and liked to be in control, but when it came to matters of the heart, Erza was incredibly shy and reserved. It took Mira the better part of a year after Natsu left to get Erza into her bedroom. Even then, she limited the white haired beauty to their secret relationship and would only kiss her for six months, despite wanting to go so much further.

Mira had eventually managed to bring Erza out of her shell a little bit, but not to the point that she was comfortable with anything happening with anyone besides Mira and Levy. Erza was more than ready to be with Natsu, she had realized all of her feelings long ago and was depending on him feeling the same, she had no idea what she would do if he didn't return her feelings. It was something that she worried about, even if Natsu had practically admitted to being in love with her, without actually saying the words.

Natsu was getting a little bit impatient when Erza's eyes hardened. She had made a decision it seemed.

"I think it would be better if you held the tape Natsu, you know more about how the measurements need to be taken. I am more than capable of reading the numbers on the tape." Erza managed to fight most of the blush off of her face, only a light tinge of pink remained.

Natsu was thoroughly shocked by the answer he got. He just wanted to tease her a little bit, it was a light hearted jest. Natsu was aware that this would set the tone for any kind of interaction in their future and he wasn't willing to back down. He wasn't sure that he could absolutely control his desires, but he was at least eighty percent sure that he could.

"Alright, I think that this way will work the best anyways." Natsu wrapped the tape around Erza's back, gently smoothing it out across the back of her bra, silently wishing that he was touching her smooth skin.

Erza felt the way Natsu gently ran his hands across her back, it wasn't something that she expected from the rough around the edges Dragon Slayer, but then again, this wasn't the Dragon Slayer that she remembered. Natsu was very different now, she still wasn't sure if it was a good thing. She loved the old Natsu. The reckless, happy, brawl-loving wizard seemed to be gone, replaced by this controlled, articulate one. She could tell that the Natsu she knew was still in there, but it was underneath the veneer of control, it was nice that he was acting a little less oblivious though.

Erza's thoughts on Natsu were interrupted when she felt his hands move around, carefully caressing her sides, hands splayed to touch some of the silky skin on either side of the bra she was wearing. The feather light touches raised goose flesh on her arms and sides, while sending a shiver down her spine, directly to the core of her womanhood. _'Damn! I finally had my desire under control and her goes and does something like that.'_ Erza mentally raged at herself.

She didn't want to let Natsu know that just his light touches aroused her, but she knew that his nose would pick it up immediately. It wasn't ideal, but at least she was fairly sure that it was something that Natsu wasn't going to complain about it. Natsu's hands stopped for a split second when Erza heard his breathe catch in his throat, but then they continued on their path.

Erza was fighting to keep her breathing in a natural rhythm and she was doing an admirable job. Erza spared a stray thought on how hot Natsu's hands were, it was like he was running slightly rough heating pads along her side. The rest of her mind was laser focused on the way his fingers were inching their way to cupping her rather generous bust. She was hoping for a thorough groping now, her hormones were raging and she was horny as hell, it seemed like it was taking forever for Natsu to get close to the most sensitive points on her chest.

It seemed like ages passed before she felt Natsu's warm fingers brush against her sensitive buds. Erza didn't quite manage to contain the breathy moan that bubbled up from her chest. Her blush, surprisingly, didn't increase at the moan's escape, if anything she got more confident as her arousal increased. The moan seemed to encourage Natsu, since as soon as it escaped, he gave her chest and quick squeeze and her diamond hard tips a quick rub, eliciting a deeper, throatier moan from her.

Erza's focus was entirely on what Natsu was doing to her chest and exactly how much she wanted Natsu to just take charge and _fuck_ _her_ already. Erza was a closet pervert and was well aware of the kinks she had, but this incredible desire to be dominated by the Dragon Slayer was a surprise to her. Erza was broken from her clouded thoughts when Natsu pressed his leather clad chest against her back and leaned in until she could feel his breath against the shell of her ear.

"So what are your measurements Titania?" Natsu husked into her ear and Erza's chocolate brown eyes clouded over with intense desire. How did he know that she always wanted him to call her that? Especially in the bedroom.

Erza managed to force her mind back to the issue at hand through sheer force of will. A quick glance down at her chest, topped with incredibly stiff nipples that were so hard that they were starting to hurt, showed her the point where the tape met and she mechanically read off the number there. Erza mewled in disappointment when Natsu's warm hands disappeared from her chest, likely to write down her measurement.

' _I'm going to have to find Mira and Levy when I get finished here, there is no way I'll be able to take care of this alone.'_ She thought in despair, she was really hoping for Natsu to keep going.

She was still thinking about what she was going to do with her girlfriends when she got back to Fairy Hills after this debacle. It was a testament to the level of her arousal that even Erza Scarlet, Titania of Fairy Tail, was unable to focus on the task at hand, even with her supreme force of will.

"Alright, only one more measurement and then we're done Miss Scarlet." Natsu whispered directly into her ear, carefully pressing himself into her back, making sure that she felt the sign of his own arousal resting against the generous curve of her absolutely amazing ass.

Erza didn't trust her voice, knowing it would come out quiet and breathy, but not wanting to give Natsu even more hints of her control being at the end of it's rope. She nodded concisely. She knew that he had told her where he needed to take the measurements, but she had absolutely no idea what he said they were, nor what ones he already did while she was a space cadet. It was completely baffling to the red head, her focus was unwavering in any other situation, even when Levy and Mira tried to pull her into their beds when she was busy doing other things, but Natsu somehow managed to make sure that it was shot all to hell.

She was lost in her own little world again. Erza was brought back into sharp focus when she felt Natsu's warm fingers brushing against the inside of her right thigh. She jumped into the air at the abrupt feeling, swinging a reflexive fist down at whatever it was that brushed up against her, even if it felt amazing.

Erza wasn't used to her punches being blocked by anyone except Gildarts or Mystogan, so it shocked her when she felt a hand stop her blow and enclose her fist in a gentle, but unforgiving grip. She blushed when her sharp look caught a flash of pink before Natsu flashed his old grin at her. She looked away to hide the blush at the same time Natsu looked back at the tape he held around her leg.

Natsu wrote down the numbers on the sheet of paper that he had written the rest of the numbers on without letting go of the toned, pale leg. He was unaware of the way his hand was running his fingers up and down the skin, dangerously close to the nearly dripping crotch of Erza's panties.

Erza was not unaware of what Natsu's hand was doing, in fact, she didn't think that she was more aware of anything else in the entire world. She wasn't willing to point out what he was doing though and kept her mouth tightly closed to avoid alerting him with the various moans that were attempting to escape the confines of her throat. She was afraid that if she said something Natsu would stop.

Natsu came back from estimating how long he would take to refit the armour, still oblivious to the actions of his hand. He figured it would be a day of hard work, or maybe three days of a couple hours each day. After nodding to himself at his timeline, he went to tell Erza the good news.

Before he could say anything about the armour he noticed the look of intense focus on her face and the way she was biting down on her bottom lip, it looked almost hard enough to draw blood. He silently wondered to himself what happened to make her look like that and what made her breathing so ragged as he heard it rushing in and out of her nose.

 **CITRUS WARNING!**

He caught movement in the corner of his eye. Quickly refocusing on the movement, he was astonished to see that his had was gently tickling the skin near the crease where thigh met hip on the red haired knight. Now that he was looking in that direction Natsu noticed the way Erza was rolling her hips both side-to-side and forward-and-back, trying desperately to get his hand to come in contact with her puffy center.

Natsu smirked to himself, while he knew that he couldn't allow himself to get to into it, he could still make sure that Erza left his workshop at least a little bit relieved. He kept up the teasing of his hand, making sure to get Erza as riled up as he could. It wouldn't be long now, he could hear her panting getting louder and more irregular, while her hips were moving more erratically and were starting to jerk whenever he brushed along that crease.

Minutes later Erza's eyes started to glaze over and she lost the fight to be silent. She started whimpering in anticipation and torture, her eyes closed as her hands came up to her chest to pinch and squeeze her sensitive flesh. Natsu was waiting for this moment, patiently waiting until he could move, knowing she wouldn't see and that her own panting and whimpering would drown out any sounds that made it to the Knight's ears.

Natsu shifted so he was facing Erza's side, his left arm still wrapped around her leg to run his fingers along her skin and the right poised for what he was about to do. He could smell the increase in her arousal, she must be right on the edge. _'Now!'_ He thought to himself. Without any warning he removed his hand from her body, positioning it behind her for it's next duty.

Erza's eyes snapped open, fury burning through the haze caused from arousal. She glared down at the Dragon Slayer, who looked up at her with a superior smirk on his face. In the split second between the smirk and the tirade she was about to launch, Natsu put his plan into action. Erza felt a blazing heat erupt on her ass from the impact of something warm and firm. It sent a bolt of pure pleasure rushing directly to her dripping twat, bringing her right to the precipice of the biggest orgasm she would ever have. The sharp stinging pain was something that she had never felt before, it made her feel pleasure that she couldn't believe.

That was nothing compared to what happened next. The incredibly pleasurable pain forced Erza to thrust her hips forward at the same time she emptied her lungs with her gasp. This had the affect that Natsu was hoping for. It made the pearl of immensely sensitive nerves at the top of her wet slit stand out, proudly engorged with her desire. Erza's eyes had closed again with the slap, so she didn't see what Natsu was doing, but she felt it, oh boy, did she ever feel it.

Natsu's free hand shot forward as soon as he would pick her clit out against the dark, lacy fabric. Knowing how well she reacted to the pain of the slap, Natsu knew this would throw her so far over the edge of her release that she wouldn't even be able to see the edge anymore. He gave the pearl of pleasure a quick flick with his index finger before lightly pinching it with his index and middle fingers. He watched the pleasure explode on Erza's face with wonder, it was awe inspiring to see her face so expressive, to see the tightly controlled Titania let go and just feel the fire that shot through her body, bringing intense pleasure to every nerve ending she had.

Erza's mind went blank the moment Natsu's finger touched her clit, the pleasure wiping every thought from her mind. Erza's world consisted entirely of the pleasure that the Dragon Slayer brought to her. His pinching only prolonged the best orgasm of her young life. Natsu wasn't done though. Natsu saw that the explosion of release was starting to lessen when he made his final move.

Erza didn't know that an orgasm could get better than what she was currently experiencing, she had never gotten remotely close to coming so hard before, not even with both Levy and Mira working her body with their skilled hands and tongues. It got infinitely better when Natsu brought his thumb down on top of her still pinched pearl, causing a new spike of pleasure to rush through Erza's body and renew the quivering of her pleasure filled body.

She lost consciousness shortly after, her brain over loaded with bliss when he vigorously massaged her clit with the pad of his thumb, coupled with another smack on her ass, leaving a bright red hand print almost perfectly overlaying the one that was already there. Erza completely exploded, gushing fluid through her lacy panties and all over a smirking Natsu's somehow bare chest and even getting some in his mouth and down his chin.

Erza had one last thought, _'I've never done that before.'_ She heard Natsu growl one last thing before the blissful blackness took over, saving her mind from burning up in the fires of her pleasure.

"Delicious." Natsu's voice was both husky and gravelly, sending shivers up Erza's spine, not of pleasure this time, but of anticipation of what that meant for the future.

 **CITRUS END**

Natsu gently caught her when she fell back off of the podium, still violently reigning in his instincts, but his will power would not waver. It was something that he was well known for, even back when he was acting like a fight-happy fool. That, and that messing with Fairy Tail was the quickest way to earn an ass kicking from the Salamander. Which very few managed to figure out was almost a completely different personality than the normal Natsu and the few that did were very close to him.

Natsu had trouble deciding on where to take the woman in her arms. Should he take her to her room in Fairy Hills? Or should he just leave her in his bed until he wakes up? It was something that he wasn't really sure that he was equipped to deal with, but it looked like he would have to make a decision. It was either that or hold her for a currently unsure amount of time.

Well, on one hand it would probably be best to put her in her own bed, since it would be less confusing when she woke up. On the other hand, he would be able to get some work done on her armour and she would probably want to yell at him when she woke up too. That was a reason for both hands unfortunately. She would definitely wreck some things if she were to stomp all the way out to his house in a rage, but he would also have some warning and she might burn some of her anger over on the way over.

After some back and forth, Natsu eventually just decided to leave her in his bed. It's not like he wouldn't be able to handle whatever she would throw at him. The only weapon she had that might have a chance at causing him some damage would be that weird, world-shaking hammer that she had. He knew it was some sort of super powerful magical weapon, but he just didn't care enough to listen to the specifics of something like that, he preferred to rely on his own power, not the power of some weapon.

Natsu smiled down at the woman sleeping in his bed. The absolutely adorable look on her face when she was having a good dream never failed to make him smile, not that he watched her sleep a lot or anything. Nope, he only noticed it in passing, he would never purposely stay up later to look on her sleeping form, not at all, never.

Natsu quickly snapped his attention to something else, trying to avoid staring. The blush that the staring had growing on his cheeks did nothing to lessen his smile though. With her all tucked in and gently snoring, Natsu let out a gentle sigh and left her to her log-sawing. He went and grabbed Erza's soon-to-be armour from where he had hidden it when he returned last month and dropped off most of his stuff that had accumulated during his travels.

If he was waiting for Erza to wake up he might as well get some work done.

Mira and Levy had just gotten back to the guild hall when they suddenly started to feel their bodies heat up. It wasn't too strange for them to randomly start getting the urge to find their way to a store room and lock themselves in it, but it usually involved Erza too.

Mira shot a look over to the blue haired girl walking beside her. The answering look confirmed what she thought, Levy was feeling the heat get stronger too. They wouldn't be able to make it back to Fairy Hills and still manage to be discreet and would need to find a store room, again. It seemed to be happening more and more often lately, but they couldn't figure out what was causing it. Once their desires got strong enough it would completely ruin their control and they would stop caring about things like discretion.

Once inside the Hall, the duo quickly split up and went their own way. The Guild had some maze-like hallways that lead in all sorts of directions, but both Levy and Mira were deeply involved in the building of the new hall, so they knew the exact lay out of everything. It only took mere minutes for them to find a closet that was totally out of the way, well closet wasn't quite right. There was enough room for the trio of Fairy Tail women to bring in a decent sized pallet and a couple of tables for candles.

Levy and Mira barely made it into the room before they broke down. It was strange though, they didn't even have to touch each other before they had an absolutely mind-blowing experience with pleasure. They collapsed into a sweaty, heaving tumble on the pallet. Both blacked out for an interminable period of time, since they didn't have and time keeping devices on them or in the room, making love has no timetable after all.

Levy was surprisingly the first to wake, but her mental capacity was exceedingly high, even Master Makarov wasn't completely sure the extent that her intelligence would grow to. Her main magic was her solid script, but her brain's power to process information, memorize things, and solve problems all seemed to grow with her magical power. Not that she knew any of that, sharing it with her would only cause headaches for both her and the Master.

Once she was fully conscious again, Levy woke Mira with a gentle shaking of her shoulder. She continued to shake Mira until her eyes fluttered open and her mind started to take over the waking process, which seemed to take longer than usual for the takeover wizard. A small piece of Levy's thoughts analyzed that and came to the conclusion that it was her magic, and soul, reasserting dominance over the various demon souls that she held within her, making sure that none would escape or wrestle control from her. It must only happen when she didn't plan on going to sleep, unexpected loss of consciousness must be the major factor there.

The rest of Levy's analytical mind was far more focused on how they both were knocked out by an orgasm when they weren't even being touched by anything more than their panties. A tangent quickly showed itself to Levy in the form of a thought pointing out that it was unlikely that Mira was even wearing a pair of panties underneath the long skirt of her dress.

The bluenette quickly shook that thought off before the tangent could lead her back into a state of lust that she couldn't afford right now. She had a full fledged conundrum on her hands. She ended up glancing down at her hands as she thought about all the strange ways magic could affect the both of them, soul bonding even crossed her mind as a plausible explanation, even thought there wasn't a documented case in nearly two thousand years.

It was watching her hands fidget that ended up giving her the answer. It almost made her tear her hair out when she saw the band of pink magic around her wrist. They applied that magic less than twelve hours ago and she had completely forgotten about it. That meant that it Erza just had a really amazing time. Levy let a large grin grow across her face, there was only her and Natsu there. That meant she either got all hot and bothered and somehow managed to get herself off like that, or she managed to convince Natsu to do something with her. Another possibility was that Natsu instigated every thing, but Levy couldn't believe that even the new Natsu would do something like that.

Mira was finally awake enough to start wondering what the hell happened, but if she was being honest with herself, she didn't really care all that much. After seeing heaven like that, not much could really put a damper on her mood.

Mira rolled over to face Levy, "I don't know what you did, but can we do it again?" Her smile wasn't huge, but it did show how deliriously happy she was.

"I didn't really do anything Mira, but I do know that Erza is a very happy girl." Levy laughed at the dopey expression still plastered all over her face.

"Really? How do you figure that?" Mira's high was starting to fade, finally.

Levy held Mira's arm up, pointing carefully at the pink band around her wrist. She smiled at the dawning comprehension on the barmaid's face.

"Is there anyway to take it off? I don't know if I can handle that for another half a day." Mira sighed, rubbing her sore thigh muscles. "So is there anyway that you can remove these?"

"Probably, but I don't think that it would really be worth the effort. I doubt anything else will be happening today, Erza isn't that kind of girl you know." Levy didn't take long to work out that the Sensory Link magic that she bought would be a very long process to dispel, despite it's simplicity.

"Usually she's not that kind of girl, but for Natsu? She would be whatever it was that Natsu asked her to be and you know it." Mira was obviously worried for their curvy redhead. Natsu was always a stand up guy and she didn't think that he had changed that much, but she didn't like to take chances in these kinds of situations.

"Do you really think Natsu is capable of demanding that kind of thing from Erza? Come on, this is Natsu we're talking about here. I don't think there is a dishonourable bone in his body." Levy argued.

"We don't really know Natsu though. We were with him for less than six hours today and we learned that the Natsu we knew was almost entirely fake." Mira shot back, exasperated with Levy's trusting nature.

"That was too Natsu. Sure it wasn't this serious Natsu that came back, but you can't change your base personality. All the important parts of Natsu are still the same. He still cares for everyone in Fairy Tail and may the gods help anyone who threatens the people he cares about. Natsu is still Natsu." Levy fired right back, vehemence dripping from every syllable.

Mira was going to fire back at Levy, but the glare she was on the receiving end of definitely made her rethink her position. There was no winning arguments with Levy, not only was she stubborn as all hell, but she was without a doubt the smartest person in any given room, probably the entire city. There was just no way of beating her with anything even remotely approaching certainty, especially not when she was having an emotional fit like she was now. Mira couldn't honestly say that she truly believed what she was arguing.

"Fine. I believe that he won't take advantage of Erza, but I still reserve judgement on the rest of his character." Mira scowled at the spunky little bookworm, making sure that she was absolutely aware of how serious she was about this.

"He will prove you wrong Mira. I know it." Levy tapped her thumb to her chest over her heart, "I know it right here."

Mira's mouth dropped open and her eyebrows shot up underneath her bangs at hearing that sappy line. Her incredulous stare rapidly devolved into giggles that grew into deep, rolling on the ground, belly laughs. She had started to lose so much breath that she couldn't even laugh properly by the time Levy's straight face broke and she joined the other beautiful woman on the ground, laughing her head off.

"Could you believe it if I actually meant that?" Levy gasped out after their laughter had subsided to sporadic giggles and light chuckles.

"I thought you were serious for a moment. It sounded like something out of those comic books that are all the rage with the young ones right now." Mira said, wiping the tears from her eyes and cheeks, immensely glad that she didn't wear make up. That she saved for special occasions and when she knew that Jenny would be around to show up, or if there was even a minute chance of Jenny showing up really.

"They're called Manga." Levy supplied, "On a more serious note, we will just have to wait and see what happens with Natsu." She let out a long suffering sigh. Who knew that Natsu returning would be this troublesome?

"Yeah, I suppose we will." Mira let out an identical sigh, thinking the same thing.

Mira and Levy sat in companionable silence while they waited to make sure that something else wouldn't happen. Just because it was unlikely doesn't mean that it wouldn't happen. Damn near anything could happen to a Fairy Tail wizard, no matter how unlikely, or impossible it seems. They kept their hands to themselves the entire time, even though they wanted to do more. Now that they remembered the Sensory Link they didn't want to cause any problems for Erza while she was with Natsu.

It was definitely a strange situation that the duo found themselves in, but neither one would change anything about it, especially now that they had Natsu back in their lives. Neither one could put their finger on why, but they were sure that Natsu was here to stick around this time.

As Mira and Levy were lost in their own thoughts, the enormous bell that acted as the guild hall's doorbell started ringing. The barmaid and bookworm shared a quick glance, sharing an entire conversation with their eyes. After a quick nod each they rushed out the door and back to the main area of the hall, where everyone was gathered up near the giant set of double doors.

It didn't take Mira long to push her way to the front of the front of the mass of wizards. Lucky for Levy, she just followed in the wake of her white haired lover. They emerged into what was likely the biggest stand off in Council history.

On one side was the entirety of Fairy Tail, minus Natsu and Erza, with Gildarts and Master Makarov at the fore. On the other side there was what appeared to be a couple platoons of Rune Knights, standing in front of them was one of their froggy messengers and Commander Lahar.

It seemed that whatever was happening just started because the messenger was just stepping forward to announce whatever it was they were there for. Mira moved to stand on the other side of Master Makarov, even though she thought that it should be the spot for either Mystogan or Laxus, but she knew that neither one would be there. One because he was an asshole, also he was expelled from the guild, but that's besides the point. The other one was because he was too shy to be that in the limelight even that much, he hated attention so much that he put the entire guild to sleep when he came for a new mission.

"Guildmaster Makarov, we are here to arrest two of your wizards on several charges, including extreme property damage, use of banned magic, refusing to comply with Rune Knight orders, resisting arrest, and fleeing from the scene of a crime." The messenger announced in her croaky voice, only a slight tremble showing itself when Gildarts unknowingly released a little of his magical power.

"Two questions. Who are they? And what happens if we refuse to let them go?" Gildarts wasn't usually this abrupt or serious, but this was one occasion that his usual jovial demeanor was no where in sight.

"The two that are needed are Erza Scarlet and Mirajane Strauss. In the case of your interference, well the Council will be upset and may react a little violently." It was Lahar that answered this time, since the messenger was unable to speak in the face of Gildarts' anger.

"Mira? How could the Council try to pin anything on Mira? She hasn't left the Guild for more than a couple hours in years." Gray yelled from behind the people in front.

Before anyone else could answer Mira spoke up, "They picked me and Erza because they want to make an example out of us. We are both powerful and very well known, I'm also in the public eye a lot through my modelling. This is all to send a message." Mira didn't even try to hide the disgust in her voice as she sneered down at Lahar.

The look on many faces in the Fairy Tail crowd mirrored the disgust in Mira's voice. Even some of the Rune Knights held the same disgust on their faces for a spilt second before schooling themselves into disciplined indifference.

Lahar stepped forward holding magic binding handcuffs, sending a silent message that it was time for this whole farce to end. He would arrest the girls and they would be off. He didn't say it outright, but he was sure that all the important people knew that it would be a slap on the wrist and then they would be sent home.

Mira heard someone clear their throat off to the side of the two groups that were locked in stand off. Her head swiveled around to look at who had the balls to interrupt something like this, her scowl was intense and likely would have scared away anyone aside from the other S-class wizards and Lahar.

"What exactly is going on?" Erza's voice was as stern as Mira had ever heard it, even more so than when she tried to play with her backdoor a little one night. She even heard a quiet "Oh, fuck." From behind her, likely from Gray or Gajeel.

Erza stood stock still, waiting for an answer. When no one seemed to be forth coming with what she wanted to know, Erza marched up to the person with the most authority that she thought she would be able to bully into answering her.

It was unfortunate, but she knew that she wouldn't be able to bully anyone in Fairy Tail right now, not with the Master and Gildarts standing in the way. Erza was still staring at the Commander in front of her when he _moved._ She was looking right at him and she still didn't see the movement that had her with one hand already in cuffs and the other about to join it.

Suddenly Erza was standing behind someone, cuffs still hanging from her wrist. Normally being manhandled would irrevocably piss her off, but this time she didn't even have the chance to be pissed off. She thought that Lahar moved fast, the man in front of her made him look like he was moving at glaciers pace.

It took her a while to figure out who it was, somehow, it was actually the scars on his back that Erza recognized. It was Natsu, if she only would have paid attention to the hair on top of his head she would have figured it out way faster. Those scars had always made her feel bad, he had got them while protecting her after all.

Her musing was cut off rather abruptly by Natsu's voice.

"Lahar, I thought I told you, Fairy Tail is off limits." His words came out almost unintelligible underneath the growl bubbling up from his chest.

Mira, Levy, and Erza unknowingly had the same thought at that point, _'God that was hot.'_

Lahar was shocked into silence for only a second at the appearance of Natsu. "How?!" He shouted at the Dragon Slayer. "You were crossing the border into another country two days ago. How are you here?" Lahar was understandably upset. The Council had warned him not to get in Natsu's way, but they also wanted him to make an example of Fairy Tail. This was the only time that he thought he would even have a chance. The border crossing was more than a weeks travel away from Magnolia, even if he braved a train it would take more than two days.

"Yea, I travel pretty fast these days." Natsu smirked down at the bespectacled commander. Then he tightened the grip he still held on Lahar's wrist, causing a grunt of pain to escape his lips. "I forget what I told you before Lahar, could you remind me?"

Lahar didn't answer Natsu, he just threw a pained glare at the man that held his wrist so tight that he thought he was losing feeling in it from lack of blood flow. He wouldn't let Natsu bully him, not like the last time. Natsu would have to break every bone in his body before Lahar would say anything that would even hint at him submitting to the pink haired wizard.

"Nevermind, I remember." Natsu continued, getting in Lahar's face a whispering, "I told you that if you ever went after Fairy Tail, I would tear the Council down piece by piece until there was only ruins left. Then I would burn the rubble until only dust and ash remained to tell the tale of the Council's folly. For that is what it is to go against a _Dragon._ " Natsu didn't yell, or even growl anymore, but he got his point across better than either one of those things would be able to do.

With his piece said, Natsu let the Rune Knight Commander go, just in time to avoid any tissue damage from having no circulation. He let a glare loose at the platoons of Rune Knights, who were scared shitless that someone had overpowered their commander so easily, especially while only wearing a leather apron and a pair of light flowing pants.

"Oh, and one last thing." The growl was back this time, but deeper and more menacing than before. Anyone that was able to see Natsu before he turned back to look at Lahar again would have noted that Natsu's eyes had changed from his usual warm onyx. In their place was a vivid emerald green that glowed with barely restrained power, the slit pupil displaying their distinct reptilian qualities. These were the eyes of a powerful Dragon. "If you ever lay a hand on my mate again, there won't be enough ashes left to fill a thimble for your funeral." Natsu threatened in a cold voice, backed by the growl still emanating from his chest.

Gajeel had seen Natsu's eyes and thought to himself, _'Shit. He's reached the third stage already. There is no way I'm strong enough to beat him. I'll just have to settle for being the second strongest Dragon Slayer in the guild. For now, anyways.'_ Gajeel wasn't stupid, but he would never be happy being second best either. He was going to train himself into the ground to match the Salamander now.

 **Alright, that's all I have for this one. Review at your pleasure, it really does encourage a writer.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to anything besides the original material in this fan** _ **fiction**_ **. No money is being made off of this.**

 **I still haven't really decided on whether or not Mira and Levy will be involved with Natsu, at the beginning of writing this chapter at least, but they will still be heavily involved in the story, one way or another.**

Erza looked over Natsu's shoulder and watched the Rune Knights depart. The frown on Lahar's face was more than enough to bring her mood up to where it was when she woke up. She had to admit that it was more than a little endearing to see Natsu protecting her. However, she couldn't allow him to think that she need his protection.

With that in mind, she swung the hanging cuff at the back of his head. Erza was fairly certain that not only was Natsu able to tell when it was coming, but that he would be able to dodge it at the minimum.

The sharp *crack* that the steel cuff made when it connected with the back of his head thoroughly disabused her of that notion. After she heard and felt the cuff pound into the back of Natsu's head Erza expected to have a terrifyingly angry Dragon Slayer round on her. She was disabused of that notion as well when Natsu fell to his knees, clutching and rubbing at the back of his head.

Erza may not have expected any of that to happen, but she would take advantage of it, "Natsu, I'm flattered that you protected me. However, I don't need your protection." Erza glared down at the kneeling man, trying to burn holes in the back of his head with her eyes alone.

"Yes, I know." Natsu sighed, "I might have over reacted a little, but I would rather overreact than underreact."

"Well, with reasoning like that I can't really be mad at you." Erza bowed at her waist, "I'm sorry. Please, hit me." She offered herself for her 'deserved' punishment.

"I'm not going to hit you Erza. I wouldn't when we were kids and I won't now that we're older." Natsu grinned up at the scarlet haired knight. "Well, not in situations like this anyways." Natsu's grin turned to a smirk.

Erza felt a blush grow on her cheeks and was suddenly glad that her hair was hanging down around her face. She couldn't actually see the smirk on Natsu's face, but she knew it was there. She had started to fight down the blush the moment it started to appear and was able to force it off her face quickly.

"So Natsu, do you think that you'll be selected for the S-Class trials?" Erza asked as soon as she managed to force her blood back to the areas that it belonged.

"Hmm?" The man in front of her answered, "Oh, right, no." Natsu was sniffing the air, like a dog at a barbeque.

"What? Why not? If you're really as strong as I think you are then you should pass without a problem." Erza was confused, she couldn't figure out why Natsu didn't seem to be upset about not making it into the trials.

"I would pass, but I won't be in this year's is because Gramps promoted me about a year after I left." Natsu continued through his sniffing, "It's how I was able to survive through my training without taking constant jobs."

"WHAT?!" Erza screeched, "How did Master Promote you? He should have to do it through the selection trials just like for everyone else." Erza started to radiate a dangerous magical aura with her rage.

"He doesn't actually need to, but I did compete in a trial. It was the year before you became an S-Class wizard. I turned down the promotion though, I was enjoying being carefree at the time. Gramps told me that whenever I wanted to become S-Class then all I had to do was tell him and he'd promote me." Natsu followed his nose all the way to the bar at the front of the guild.

"No. There wasn't a successful candidate that year." Erza contradicted immediately, without really thinking about what Natsu said.

"Well, yeah. That's because I turned the promotion down." Natsu explained, doing his best to flag down Mira, who was taking orders for food, but appeared to be ignoring him.

"Why would you have turned it down after competing?" Erza really wasn't enjoying the confusion that she was feeling.

"Well I really just wanted to see how I stacked up to the S-Class wizards. I didn't really think that I would be successful. I did have to go all out against Gildarts though." Natsu continued to attempt flagging down the white haired bartender. This time she sent him a glare and made a show of looking away from him.

Erza talked directly over Natsu's growl of frustration, and the growl of his stomach, "Did you beat Gildarts?" She was sure she would have screeched that too, but she knew that it would draw more attention that she really didn't want, nor, she was sure, did Natsu.

Natsu let out a short bark of laughter, "Ha! Hell no. I got my ass kicked without even causing him a scratch, but I impressed him somehow and he told Gramps that I deserved a promotion." Natsu laughed again at the absurdity of the memory.

Erza let out the breath that she had been holding in a large gust. It was reassuring that Natsu wasn't as freakishly strong back then as he seemed to be now. She was almost positive that Natsu had some sort of hidden power even back then. It was a relief that he wasn't stronger than she knew and she said as much to Natsu.

Natsu laughed again, "I was. At full power, I could probably have taken you out, but I would have been completely useless for at least a day after." Natsu answered her unasked question honestly.

"How come you always held back?" Erza asked earnestly.

"I didn't want to risk hurting you. When I go all out I tend to lose myself to the power. I'll fight until I can't anymore or my opponent it disabled. Even comrades in a friendly duel." Natsu explained.

"Really? Why?" Erza was far too interested in this new information. She should be disgusted by Natsu's lack of control, but he was very careful not to go that far whenever his comrades were around, so he was in control, in a manner of speaking.

"It's kind of a like a berserker mode, or extreme bloodlust. Mostly it's the desire of a dragon to be the alpha. To be the strongest one. I keep a very tight reign on the instincts that being a Dragon Slayer has given me and when I let all the power out that tight control is gone."

"That actually makes a little bit of sense to me." Erza smiled at the young man next to her. Her expression was replaced by one of confusion though, "So you said you went all out against Gildarts. Does that mean what I think it does?"

"Yeah, it does. He was a little banged up at the end of it, but I still didn't really stand a chance since he was being really careful not to hurt me at all and I didn't really care if I hurt him or not." Natsu smiled ruefully at how stupid he was back then. Thinking that winning was more important than anything else. At least he knew better now.

Erza eventually took pity on the starving Dragon Slayer and flagged down Mira. She seemed reluctant to come down, but she did anyways. Erza noticed that she was very careful not to look the Natsu. Luckily for him, Erza cared about him. She ordered both a strawberry cake and an order of the fire whisky that she knew Natsu liked.

Mira looked less than happy with the situation, but one stern look from Erza let her know that she wouldn't appreciate not being served. She couldn't really figure out why Mira seemed so upset with Natsu and she looked around for Levy as well. She found her in a back corner with Lucy, Cana, and Wendy.

Levy caught Erza looking at her and met her stare. It didn't do much to reassure Erza, but at least it didn't show any outright hostility for the man sitting beside her. She needed to get to the bottom of this.

"Natsu, I need to talk to Levy and maybe Mira. Will you wait in the Guild Hall for me?" She didn't want Natsu to disappear on her. She would make sure that he wouldn't leave her again if it was the last thing she did.

"Yeah I can handle that. I promise I won't leave without you." Natsu smiled his most reassuring smile at Erza. "On a side note, you can tell them that I don't intend to force you into a relationship with me, nor do I expect you to leave them if you were wanting to be in a relationship with me."

"Wait, does that mean you want a relationship with me?" Erza asked hesitantly, not sure if she really wanted to know the answer, but not willing to dance around the topic either.

"Only if it will make you happy, Erza." Natsu answered, "Did you think what happened during your measurements was just for fun? You should know that I wouldn't do that to anyone Erza."

Erza blushed at the mention of the measurements and shot a deadly glare at Natsu, who didn't even flinch like he used to. Erza frowned at the lack of reaction before saying, "We'll talk about that later, in private."

Erza then spun on her heel and marched over to where Levy was sitting with the other girls.

Erza was about halfway to the table when she turned around to look at where Natsu was sitting, only to see the seat she had just vacated already filled by another female guild member. She was going to go back over there and give the flirty hussy the what for and send a message to everyone else. The message would say "Stay the fuck away from my man, or else."

Luckily for the random hussy, she only was able to say about three words to Natsu before he looked into her eyes and gently told her to "buzz off" and that he was far too busy. Then he turned back to continue talking to Wakaba on his other side, who had also sat down shortly after Erza left.

With her worries assuaged and a grin plastered on her face from Natsu's brutal denial of _the hussy_ , Erza finished her walk over to the girls table.

"Levy, may I speak to you for a moment?" Erza asked politely, puling surprised gasps from the others surrounding the table. Apparently it wasn't something that they had experienced or expected from Titania of Fairy Tail.

"Yeah, sure, just give me a second," Levy answered, hoping that this wouldn't be exactly what she expected.

Erza nodded and stepped away from the table to wait for Levy. Erza never seemed to be able to find somewhere that was private without resorting to threatening her fellow guild members with bodily harm. This was important enough that she didn't even want the chance that anybody could over hear what she wanted to talk about.

Levy took her time saying her goodbyes, grinning evilly to herself when she saw Erza getting antsy. Soon enough, or not soon enough for Erza, Levy was standing beside the scarlet haired knight and pointedly ignored the mild glare and toe tapping.

It only took a moment of eye contact for Levy to realize that Erza wanted this to be as private as any of their talks about their relationship, or their _talks_. Levy really enjoyed that second type of _talk_. After the eye contact, Levy led Erza through more twists and turns than either one of them was entirely sure there should be in the Guild Hall.

Once they got to an out of the way store room Levy asked, "What did you need Erza?"

Erza was once again worrying her lip in her nervousness, she really had no idea how to approach this. Should she just come out and say it? Or should she use the whole "My friend needs advice…" thing? Or should she try and lead Levy into broaching the subject first? There were far too many options for the usually straight forward knight.

Eventually Erza decided to bite the metaphorical bullet, "I want to ask you why Mira seems to hate Natsu now? And I need to know how you feel about him too." She started strong, but her voice quickly devolved into a barely audible whisper.

"Okay? I'm just going to answer the question that I think I heard." Levy started uncertainly and seeing that Erza was just looking at her with wide, searching eyes, she continued, "Mira is worried that this Natsu isn't the same as the one that left, but I'm pretty sure that it's mostly that she's worried that we will lose you to him."

Erza nodded in understanding, the wide-eyed look of before gone, it was scary how fast her moods could change.

Levy saw that Erza was still waiting for the other question to be answered and hesitantly offered her opinion, "I'm not worried about Natsu not being the same as before. I know that the core of who he is will always remain the same. I am worried about losing you to him. I want you to be happy, but I don't want to lose you either. It sucks to be conflicted like this."

Levy started to break down, a hitching starting her chest to join the silent tears that had started sliding down her face. She was always the most openly emotional of the three girls. That's not to say that they weren't emotionally invested, just that Levy was the only one that really wore her heart on her sleeve.

Erza waited for Levy to cry herself out. It didn't take long. It wasn't one of those marathon cries that every girl seemed to need every once in a while. It was more of a 'I spilled my ice cream' cry that can only happen for one week out of every four.

"Listen, Levy. Natsu told me something that he thought you needed to know. He wanted me to let you know that he wouldn't interfere with our relationship and that he wouldn't try and force me into a relationship with him." Erza explained gently.

"Really? It's not like he really could force you though." Levy sniffed, wiping the last of her tears away.

"He could, really easily actually. All he would have to do is properly mark me as his mate. It would pretty much take away any choice I had in delaying our relationship." Erza didn't want to tell Levy that, but she wouldn't keep secrets from her either.

"What do you mean delay the relationship?" Levy asked suspiciously.

"I mean that the mate mark that he can put on me would make both of us act on our desire for each other. It wouldn't affect me if I truly didn't want to be with Natsu and he didn't want to be with me. That's not the case though. I do want to be with him and he wants to be with me." Erza sighed. This wasn't going the way she wanted it to.

"Isn't that rape?!" Levy screeched.

Erza covered her ears in time to avoid the damage that Levy might have caused to her precious ear drums. She really liked being able to hear properly and didn't want to sacrifice that.

"No, it's more like a really powerful aphrodisiac. It couldn't make either one of us do anything that we didn't want to do. Actually I'm pretty sure it would be really painful to him if he tried to mark someone that didn't want to be with him. My reference material was a little vague on what would happen if the Dragon Slayer did that. It just said _**don't**_ ," Erza joined Levy in her frown at the lack of definitive answer.

"Fine," Levy pouted, "I don't think Natsu is capable of forcing something like that on you anyways. He loves you."

Erza smiled happily at Levy. She was happy that someone else had noticed and she hadn't imagined everything that had happened yesterday. She was also happy that Levy appeared to be happy about Natsu being back in Erza's life, despite her worries about their own relationship.

"Are we good then?" Levy nodded, "Can you talk to Mira for me? She probably won't want to talk to me after I ordered for Natsu."

Erza rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment at the devious smirk Levy sent her way. There was no way she was going to get out of this without paying the cute blue haired girl back in some way.

"Yeah I can do that, but only if you do something for me." Levy's smirk only grew at the worried look on Erza's face. It was too much fun to make her sweat a little.

"That depends, what do you want me to do?" Erza asked hesitantly. Levy was quite clever and probably knew Erza better than she knew herself. If anyone was capable of finding something to make Erza lose her cool, it was Levy McGarden.

Levy took a thinking pose for a few minutes, to make Erza sweat a little, "Give me a full body massage." She eventually demanded of Erza.

Erza let out a great sigh of relief. A massage was something that she often gave to Levy and it often led to much more interesting places. Erza was sure that there was no one that was as sexy as Levy was when she was covered in shiny massage oil and moaning in contented pleasure. On top of that already extreme amount of sexiness there was the fact that Erza got to rub her all over, wherever she wanted to, as long as it still felt good to Levy.

"But," She paused for dramatic effect. "I want you to do it with Natsu in the room." Levy let out an evil cackle. She quickly bit that back though and was lucky that Erza was too in shock from the implications to catch the evilness of her laughter.

"WHY?!" This time it was Erza screeching, she couldn't imagine doing something that in front of Natsu. Although it was an intriguing thought. It would probably get some things moving in their relationship. It seemed that Levy wanted to be a part of that too, which was a little surprising.

"Mostly because I want to see what his reaction would be. A small part of me wants to know if he's attracted to me and that part also wants to know if he would take us as a package deal. I'm sure Mira will come around eventually." Levy had to fight through a blush and embarrassment to get it out, but she managed it.

"I'm sure he wouldn't have any complaints about your body Levy, you're beautiful." Erza brushed her hand against the petite bluenette's cheek, earning her a beautiful smile in return.

Nobody would believe that Erza Scarlet was a sucker for a beautiful smile like that, but she was. It made her feel all sorts of things that made her all fluttery on the inside. Whenever she saw Levy give her that smile, she couldn't help but want to kiss her. Luckily for her, when they were alone they didn't need to worry about hiding their relationship.

Erza leaned down and gently pressed her lips to Levy's much softer ones. Levy let out a light breath at the sudden kiss that made Erza's spine tingle. Levy was definitely the cute one in the relationship, but that didn't mean that she didn't carry sex appeal around in buckets. It was the little things that she did that turned her girlfriends on.

The single kiss turned into a couple of light, but heated kisses that packed a lot more passion into them than seemed possible.

It didn't take long for the light kisses to turn even more heated. Erza slipped her tongue between her swollen red lips and brushed it across Levy's, begging entrance to deepen the kiss.

Levy opened her mouth to allow Erza's tongue in and felt it brush across her own, drawing it out into a battle that Levy always lost, but was always really happy to do so. As their tongues wrestled, Levy's hands snaked up into Erza's crimson locks, gripping close to the scalp to make sure she couldn't draw away before she was done with her.

While Levy was carefully massaging her scalp, Erza wrapped her strong arms around the smaller girl's waist, pulling her against her soft chest, having requipped out of her armour the moment things started getting heated.

Erza was starting to feel the heat traveling down through her body, like liquid fire, all the way down to her center. Erza let out a deep throaty moan when she felt Levy's hands hit a particularly pleasurable spot in her scalp massage. A brief thought crossed her mind, _'I seem to be getting aroused far easier than usual lately.'_ She didn't get much further than that though because Levy's tongue made a particularly spectacular maneuver that forced Erza to put more effort into their duel.

Erza's hands were rubbing and massaging Levy's back underneath her shirt, just feeling the smooth, heated skin. It earned her more than a few gentle moans from the beautiful girl, moans that Erza found unbelievably sexy.

Erza's hands were migrating up and around to the front side of Levy much faster than normal, but she hadn't felt a bra across Levy's back and that made her more than a little excited. They were almost all the way around to one of the best things in Erza's life when there was a polite clearing of a throat from right next to the duo.

Both Erza and Levy nearly jumped out of their skins at the sound. Erza threw her hands into the air and requipped a spear on basic instinct at being surprised. The only problem with that was that her hands were still underneath Levy's shirt. Levy only screeched and shrunk in on herself with her arms slapped over her exposed chest.

"Well I don't think there could be two more different reactions to an interruption." Natsu laughed at the two girls in front of him.

Erza let out a huge breath of relief and sank bonelessly to the ground, eyes fluttering closed as she fainted from the huge adrenaline rush and subsequent crash. That hadn't happened to her before The spear disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared.

Unfortunately for Levy, her shirt disappeared at the same time as the spear. She made a squeak that somehow got across how upsetting that was for the poor young girl. She sent a pleading glance up at the pink haired man that barged in on something that she was really enjoying. Levy even thought, _'If he gives me a shirt I'll forgive him.'_

Natsu saw the need written in fluorescent red all across Levy's face and took pity on her. He gave her the leather apron that he was still wearing, for whatever reason, leaving him in his usually flowing parachute-esque pants.

Levy quickly looped the apron over her head and tied it securely to her body, making sure that nothing untoward would be showing to Natsu.

"You know Levy, you really are beautiful, don't let anyone tell you anything different." Natsu said, pulling another, less impressive, blush from the just recently de-blushed Levy.

"T-thanks Natsu." Levy stuttered out past her embarrassment. Just because she was a little upset with him didn't mean that she was going to just forgo her manners.

Natsu smiled a 'thank-you' smile down at the book loving young woman. He gently brushed her aside so that he could pick up Erza. He knew that she would like to be somewhere comfortable when she woke up. It shouldn't be long, but he could at least get her somewhere soft.

"Levy, do you know anywhere that has somewhere I could lay her down?" Natsu asked once he had the scarlet knight hoisted in his arms. He was incredibly happy that she was still wearing her clothes, it would be awkward if he had to try and cover her body while he was carrying her.

"Yes. It's just a couple hallways away from where we are. Why? Erza is usually awake right away after she faints." Levy offered, thinking she knew Erza best.

"Maybe after a couple hours of sex," Natsu smirked at Levy, "This kind of passing out will probably take her a significant amount of time to sleep off."

"You're a jerk you know." Levy pouted, "I've never actually seen her pass out or faint from anything else." Levy led Natsu out of the current store room and over to the one that she and the other two girls set up.

Levy was very careful not to be seen while they were moving the mostly unconscious knight. It wasn't so much that they didn't want to be seen. It was more that they didn't want to chance taking Erza to the infirmary when the last thing on her mind was getting Levy naked before being interrupted by Natsu. Erza tended to talk in her sleep about the last intense thing she experienced, whether it was a battle or sex.

"It's not much, but it should work until she wakes up." Levy plopped herself down on the little pallet that they had made up, "Do you want to talk while we wait?" She asked hesitantly, still very aware that all she was wearing on her upper half was a leather apron that was far to big for her small frame. She didn't really want to have Natsu looking at her all that much, she wasn't one hundred percent sure that she could handle if he decided he wanted her.

It wasn't so much that she wasn't attracted to Natsu, completely the opposite of that if she was being honest with herself. Levy was really more worried about what it would do to Erza if something happened between Natsu and her. She was pretty sure that Erza would have absolutely no problem sharing Natsu, but not until after she had a little bit of time with him all to herself.

"Sure, I'm game for that. Do want to go question for question? I think I'll manage to find something to ask." Natsu agreed.

Levy nodded, "Do you want to go first or do you want me to?" Levy didn't even wait for him to answer, he knew that she was going to go first and she started brainstorming ideas. She couldn't decide if she wanted to ask about his magic, what de did while he was gone, or more about his past.

Eventually she decided that she would just ask whatever it was at the front of her mind whenever it was her turn.

"You go right ahead Levy."

"Good. Can you tell me what you did while you were gone?"

"Not all of it, but I can give you the short version." He waited for Levy to make sure she was comfortable for his tale, "For the first two thirds of my time I trained most of the day, everyday, only stopping to eat and sleep for a couple hours. The last third was almost entirely working on missions that Gramps sent me."

"Really? What kind of missions? And how did Master get those missions to you?" Levy bounced excitedly on the pallet, hoping for something really good.

"Uh, uh Levy, it's my turn to ask question." Natsu smirked down at her from where he was leaning against the wall, pulling a pout from his counterpart, "Did anything of note happen, aside from the various crisis', while I was away?"

Levy took a few second to remember. Natsu wasn't gone that long, but a lot had happened in that time.

"Not really. Jellal came and visited a few times, I got asked out a whole bunch of times after I started filling out, and Lucy and Gray started seeing each other. Now they seem to be on and off depending on Gray's mood. Elfman and Evergreen seem to be dancing around each other for the last few weeks."

Levy pushed on past the growl that Natsu emitted at the mention of Jellal visiting. It was more than a little surprising and frightening. Levy didn't know why that seemed to bother Natsu, but she knew that her next question was just found.

"That's pretty much it. Nothing interesting happens in between the crisis', the crisis' are the interesting things. Is it my turn now?" Levy powered through the still tense look on Natsu's face and waited for his nod, "Good. Why did Jellal coming here freak you out?"

"Fuck. It's because Erza was hung up on him for years. Then after I kicked his ass and he came mostly back to himself after the giant spider death ray issue, he realized that he was in love with Erza. I wanted to kick his ass again, but I had to bail before the Rune Knights showed up. They weren't as scared of me back then."

"Really? That's not the vibe I got from Erza. She gave Jellal the cold shoulder and then beat the hell out of him when he bad mouthed me and Mira. Then after he was down he was still running his mouth, about you until Master kicked him across the town."

"I knew Gramps would stick up for me." Natsu smiled lightly at the thought of Gramps standing up for him even when he wasn't there, "I can't really think of a question, I'll skip on mine."

"Ungh," Erza sat up rubbing her head lightly, "What happened?" She looked blearily around, trying to gauge where she was.

"Well, you fainted from the relief and loss of adrenaline in your blood stream, I think anyways," Levy answered, "Then we brought you here and played twenty questions while you were out. I learned some interesting things, Natsu just about went out and killed Jellal, it was a grand time."

"One question, no, two questions, why did Natsu want to kill Jellal? And why are you wearing Natsu's apron?" Erza got a glare from Levy and Natsu looking like he was holding back laughter.

"You requipped my shirt away when you got rid of your spear," Levy deadpanned, her face completely straight, being careful not to show how peeved she was about it.

"Right. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to, it just happened." Erza bowed her head in her standard apology bow. At least she didn't ask to be hit this time, mostly because she wasn't a hundred percent sure that Levy wouldn't do it in a way that would embarrass her.

"It's alright, just bring it back. I really don't like wearing just an apron, it's a little drafty." She deadpanned at Natsu, wondering how he managed to completely ignore it.

"Sorry Levy, but I didn't wear a shirt until just recently, I don't even notice the open air against my skin. Besides, you look good with that much skin showing, right Erza?" He looked over at the knight that seemed to be completely entranced by her girlfriend's skin that was on showcase.

Erza nodded in even, measured nods. Natsu could tell that she was only just paying attention to what was going on around her. A large majority of her attention seemed to be focused on Levy. It was strange for Natsu to see her like that. She used to be all focus all the time, but now she seemed to be far more focused on her carnal desires.

Natsu thought on it while Levy and Erza were distracted by Levy's almost naked upper body. It only took him a couple minutes before he figured it out. It was his fault that Erza was like this. His magic was influencing her since he had chosen her as the one he wanted to be his mate. It was essentially ramping up her own instincts to mate, but it wasn't doing anything to direct them.

Levy had managed to distract Erza enough to get her shirt back, but that was about as far as it got. Levy was reluctant to take the apron off for long enough to put her shirt on. She was almost certain that she would be attacked in the best possible way if she were to become topless. It just wasn't something that they had time for right now, they were already gone much longer than they should have been.

Mira was getting pissed off and it was showing in the way she was serving her guild mates. It wasn't so much that Erza was paying so much attention to Natsu, even though she wasn't too happy about that. It was that her own anger at the situation was pushing both Erza and Levy away from her.

Sure neither one of them had said anything to that effect, but she could read between the lines. Levy was more than a little pissed off when she refused to listen to her reasons for why Natsu returning was a good thing. That and how even though he seemed so different, he was still the same person, deep down.

Mira was in denial about the whole thing. She knew that even before he left she was interested in Natsu on a level beyond simple friendship. The thing she hated worst about it was that she knew he wasn't interested in her. He liked Erza for a long time, he had confided in her before he left to find Igneel, the time that he found Lucy and brought her back.

It was shortly after he left that time when Erza came to her and also confessed her feelings for the Dragon Slayer. She didn't know how to express her feelings though. Erza always struggled with her emotions, it was the reason she always wore her armour. It helped her feel safe and secure.

"-Mira. Hey, Mira!" Someone yelled at her to get her attention.

" **What?!"** Mira yelled back in her demon voice, going into a partial transformation to scare off the insolent little whelp that yelled at her.

The young man that was trying to get her attention for a drink nearly wet his pants in fright. He cowered under her demonic gaze until she let up. Then he promptly disappeared in a burst of speed that was here-to-fore unseen outside of major magic battles and Jet's regular running speed. Mira grumbled to herself before calling out to Lisanna to cover the bar, she wasn't going to be able to be the amicable bartender anymore today.

She decided that she would find Levy and Erza so that she could apologize for being such a twat for the last couple days. She was sure that Erza and Levy would forgive her, in time. Natsu was a little bit of a wild card though. She wasn't sure if he would forgive her quite as easily, or if he would at all. She knew the old Natsu would, but she still wasn't completely sure if this new Natsu would. No matter how much she tried to convince herself that he was the same, she just couldn't do it. Not after the display of power and everything that happened earlier.

She knew almost exactly where Levy and Erza would be at this point. Almost because there was about a five percent chance of them going somewhere else and still be in the guild hall. It was even more unlikely that they would leave the guild hall for their little talk. She didn't know how she knew that Natsu would be with them, but as soon as he left the bar Mira knew that he had went to see what was going on with Levy and Erza.

She made a beeline for the room they used. She knew they would be there and she hoped that nothing too untoward would be happening. She didn't know if she could handle walking into a scene right out of Erza's dirty novels. Although she was sure that if she didn't snap and attack, then she would most likely join in.

Levy had eventually had enough of trying to convince her girlfriend that she was getting a little creepy. Instead she enlisted Natsu as a distraction. Basically she just drew attention to the fact that Natsu was half naked and leaning just perfectly against the wall to look like a model, but with nicer looking muscles.

Erza had changed her laser-like focus over to Natsu. Levy wanted to feel jealous about the hunger in her eyes when she looked at Natsu, but she just couldn't manage it. She knew from the start that she would always come second to the Dragon Slayer. It wasn't something that she was mad about, if she was honest she was kind of glad that she wasn't the only focus of Erza's attention. Levy wasn't sure she could handle that kind of intensity on her own, even with Mira it was often more than she could handle and Mira ended up picking up the slack.

Levy had just managed to get her shirt up over her head, after Natsu convinced Erza to completely focus on him and ignore whatever it was Levy was doing, when Mira burst through the door. She was a little out of breath with rosy cheeks and a glimmer in her eyes.

"Did you know that I can smell your horniness from down the hall?" Mira smiled a saucy smile at Erza, knowing that it was hers from the first whiff. Erza's scent was a spicier, lively smell than Levy's, who had a fruity, but enticing scent.

"It's not surprising. I think I could find it from a few towns away. On a side note, I know why she is acting like she is. It's kind of my fault." Natsu said, bashfully rubbing the back of his head.

Levy didn't even take a second to have a queue of questions in her head all lined up for Natsu, "How is it _kind of_ your fault?"

"It's my magic that's affecting her. It basically forces her to be hornier than usual. I picked her as who I want to be my mate and my magic is trying to make that happen, but her magic is strong enough to resist the part that makes her want me specifically."

"Alright. That does make sense. Erza how do you feel?" Levy and Natsu both looked over to Erza, who currently had her tongue down Mira's throat.

"I'm going to go ahead and assume this isn't really bothering her all that much. At the moment, anyways." Natsu was careful not to distract the amorous duo. He didn't much want either one mad at him or focusing their attention on him in any other way really.

"No, but it probably will at some point. Is there anyway to stop it?" Levy asked quietly, not taking her gaze away from the show her two girlfriends were putting on.

"A couple ways. I could leave her general vicinity, I could pick another mate, which won't happen, and finally we could have sex." Natsu explained.

That brought Levy up short. None of those options were preferable. She dropped into her thinking pose. She would have to figure something out. The first two were not really viable. One would push Erza into a deep depression that they likely wouldn't be able to pull her out of. The other would completely destroy her, if she didn't break down and go psychotic she would probably just take missions that were likely to kill her until they did.

Erza wasn't one to do anything by half and she went extra hard when it came to her love life. If they told her that the only way to get herself back to normal was to sleep with Natsu then she probably wouldn't even hesitate to jump him, especially not with how she was right now. Erza is a very private person, but looking at her now, Levy was sure that she would be willing to do what she's doing in the middle of the Guild.

"So how was Erza able to act fairly normal until we got back out of sight? She was fine until we got back here." Levy wasn't sure why that would happen, it should affect her the whole time, not just when they were alone.

"I think it had something to do with our _activities_ while I was measuring her for her armour. I think it dulled her lust for a bit. Until it got all riled up when you two were alone in that tiny little room."

"Why would that affect anything? Being in a small room with me I mean, not the other part." Levy hated not understanding.

"I don't think you understand exactly how attractive you are Levy. There is a reason so many people ask you out and it's not just because of your brains. Although that's definitely pretty attractive all on it's own." Natsu winked at Levy, trying to get her to stop focusing so intently.

While it was definitely a good thing that she was so worried about Erza, it wasn't so much a good thing when she became obsessive. Levy hadn't changed much since he left and she used to get so obsessed that she stopped doing important things, like eating and sleeping. He did particularly want that to happen this time, Erza would never forgive herself if she was the cause of something adverse happening to Levy.

Natsu was fairly sure that Porlyusica would be able to think up something that would shield Erza from his magic. He would have to convince Erza that something was wrong with her first though. Porlyusica wouldn't come to them and he was sure that Erza wouldn't want to go there unless he could prove something was actually wrong with her.

"Levy, I think I have an idea." Natsu had an epiphany on how to get Erza to Porlyusica.

Natsu didn't give Levy enough time to even ask him what his plan was, let alone try to talk him out of it.

"Erza!" Erza turned to look at him with murder in her eyes, as did Mira. Apparently they didn't enjoy being interrupted. "I want you to spar with me. No magic, only weapons." Natsu announced before either one of the irate females could start into him.

Erza instantaneously flipped from angry to eager in the blink of an eye. Erza requipped back into her regular armour and grabbed Natsu by the back of his pants, probably because he wasn't wearing a shirt to grab, but it was just as effective.

Levy stood there, mouth hanging open, mind blank. She snapped out of it when Mira rushed passed her. Then her mind started running a mile a minute. She couldn't figure out how fighting would get Erza to stop being so riled up, if anything it would make it worse. Natsu might not know it, but a good fight always made Erza all hot and bothered, and Levy was sure this would be a good fight.

Levy was still sitting and thinking when Mira marched back into the room and picked her up with her demon strength. She let out a small "Eep" as she was carried out of the door, but she was happy to be carried, it left her more brainpower to focus on how the hell the fight would be good for Erza.

"Mira, how do you think this fight is going to go?" Levy asked.

"I think that Natsu is going to show Erza what I've been telling her for years." Mira answered into Levy's neck, causing shivers to run down her spine.

"Oh? And what have you been telling her for years?"

"I've been telling her that she needs to work more on her actual fighting ability instead of relying on her amour and swords special abilities. All of our strongest fighters in the guild train to fight, not just in their magic, but their bodies and minds too. All Erza does is train to make her magic container bigger, her requip execution faster, and how to push her magic into her body to make it faster and stronger. Her actual skills with all of her weapons are pretty basic, and some of them she doesn't even know how to wield properly, she just swings harder."

"I haven't really noticed that about Erza." Levy frowned at having her friend and lover torn down like that, even if it only was her fighting skills.

"No offense, but it's because your own offensive skills are less developed for you to notice something like that. I mean you're strong, don't get me wrong, but in a straight up fight your going to be at a disadvantage with almost anyone. Your tactics and support magic are top notch though and that will save your ass most times."

Levy and Mira came out to the main room of the guild hall, expecting to find most everyone still sitting there drinking and generally being Fairy Tail, but the hall was nearly empty. The only person that was still inside was Romeo, looking really ticked off.

"What took you guys so long?!" Romeo shouted at the duo, "I'm supposed to lead you to where the spar is happening, everyone else already left so they could start the betting." Romeo ran behind Mira and started forcefully pushing her out of the hall.

Mira and Levy laughed and let themselves be ushered from the hall and across town to the wide open plain that the guild often used for exhibitions and fights to settle disputes. When they got there the entire guild and a large majority of Magnolia's people appeared to be watching the two that were currently facing off against each other in the middle.

Both Mira and Levy found themselves growling under their breath at the various women that were leering at the still topless Natsu Dragneel, Adonis made flesh. It was something that surprised both of the girls, Levy because she didn't expect Mira to react like that and Mira, because she didn't expect it either. She was getting more confused the longer she spent in the vicinity of the pink haired bastard.

"Ah, Mira, Levy," Master Makarov nodded to each of the girls in turn, "I believe you should be front and center to watch this." He gestured at the fighters that had both drawn their weapons now, "If you're making bets, the odds are currently twenty to one in Erza's favour."

"One hundred thousand on Natsu then." Levy spoke quickly, throwing her money to the nearest bookie, who happened to be Max. The surrounding members all laughed at her, betting even more on Erza in hopes of winning even a fraction of the money Levy just threw down on the underdog.

"Why would you do that?" Mira whispered to the shorter girl, "There is now way Natsu can win, even if he trained heavily, he'll never beat Erza with weapons."

"Then bet on Erza if you don't believe me, but I have a good feeling about this one." Levy smiled when she heard Mira mutter about bad ideas and trusting crazy people before she threw down an identical bet to Levy's.

Master Makarov watched on in interest, glad that he had bet on Natsu as well if Levy felt comfortable betting on him since she only bet if it was a sure thing. Knowing that everyone else would have made their bets already, he grew his body a little into a larger side.

"Bets are closed!" He yelled, "Ready? Set? Fight!"

With the Master's word Natsu let out a fierce grin that was matched by Erza. This is what they really loved, a good fight. Natsu spun his spear and vaulted into the air with the shaft of his spear so he could come down on top of Erza, who only had one of the blades from her Heaven's Wheel armour. They were the best balanced, after all, to fly through the air better.

Erza let out a battle cry the moment she started charging Natsu, only for it to stop when he launched himself into the air. She didn't know how to be the one on the bottom of a flying attack like this. She stepped back out his stabbing range and raised her sword to block any sweeping attack he might attempt.

' _I think I might be a little bit out of my depth when I can't use my magic.'_ Erza thought, quickly coming to the realization that Mira was right, not that she would ever admit that to her.

' _Shit!'_ Was her final thought before Natsu slammed his spear into her sword and drove her down to one knee with his attack. He stood up and took three measured steps back, allowing Erza back to her feet.

"Take this seriously Erza, I want a good fight, not a half-assed tussle." Natsu's grin never left his face.

 **That's it for this time. Reviews are appreciated but by no means expected.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to anything besides the original material in this fan** _ **fiction**_ **. No money is being made off of this.**

 **Thanks to everyone for the positive reviews. For the people that were negative, being purely negative with no constructive criticism is entirely useless, as are your words. I know they won't be reading this but it's something I needed to say.**

 **I have finally decided that both Mira and Levy will be involved. For those of you that don't like that, I'm sorry, but I do.**

 **Just to warn everyone, I just finished this and only took a brief look over it before posting. So if there are any issues with it, please feel free to let me know. Flames will still be ignored.**

 **Last thing. Promise. I am currently looking for a Beta to help with word choice, grammar, etc, and to catch any big mistakes I make. PM if you'd like the job.**

 **Now, on with the thing that I've written.**

Erza set herself back into her stance warily, not knowing how this was going to go now. Usually, even after something like that, she would still be confident in her ability to win the fight, but not this time. Natsu was comfortable enough to launch himself into the air to attack her and it said a lot about his confidence in his own skills.

Normally Natsu being in the air wouldn't be a big deal since his fire magic could propel him enough to dodge most attacks. This was different though, he was the one to set the no magic rule, he wouldn't be able to move if she found a way to hit him in the air. Not that she could because she picked a weapon that had a reach of about two feet on top of her arm span, which was something that she wasn't used to. It was weird to not be able to change her weapon to whatever suited her needs at the moment.

Erza could see her opponent bending his knees, shifting his grip on his spear for another attack. Natsu was obviously coming at her in the very near future and she wasn't sure what to do about that. She ran through all of her skills with her sword and realized that she had next to no defensive capability, aside from holding his spear off with her sword, or swinging wildly and hoping to bat it away.

Erza came the conclusion that her best defense would be a strong offense. That was something that she was much better at, but still came down to basically brute force. Her regular sword didn't really have any special abilities, she just had lots of them that she launched at her foes.

Erza stopped thinking after that. She lunged forward, muscles snapping with all the power that her body could bring to bear. While Erza did neglect to train only her body, that didn't mean that training her magic didn't train her body to some extent too. Her body was powerful to an extent that many would never even hope of achieving.

To a large majority of the spectators Erza became a blur as she exploded forward. There was a fair few that were able to see Erza as she moved. Unfortunately for her, Natsu was one of the people that could see every move she made. He took his right hand off of the butt of his spear and slapped the thrusting sword off of it's path.

"Come on Erza, you need to try harder than that." Natsu said.

"I'm trying my hardest!" Erza yelled back, thrusting again, and again, and again, being thwarted every time by Natsu's single hand. "Damnit! Fight me for real, Natsu!" Erza's frustration was making her sloppy.

"Whatever you want Erza." Natsu slapped one last thrust away and jumped back from the furious red head that used to strike fear into his heart, even though he knew that she would never truly hurt him.

Natsu spun his spear in his hands to that he was holding it with the tip facing backwards, grin still stretched across his face as the enraged woman raced after him with her sword held high. When she was within range of his spear, but not the range of her sword, he lunged forward and thrust the butt of his spear into her ribcage.

Erza let out a sharp gasp as the metal hit her chest. She stumbled back, clutching her chest and using her sword as a cane to keep herself off of the ground. She barely even saw a blur when Natsu moved, such was the speed that Natsu was capable of without the use of magic. She had only seen two people move faster than that and both were using magic. Although technically she didn't really see them, but it was the only way that she could describe it.

Erza managed to suck enough air into her lungs to be able to stand up straight again and was greeted with the grinning visage of Natsu Dragneel. That shouldn't be a surprise since she was sparring with him, but the fact that his face was only a few inches away was extremely surprising.

"There are several rules of fighting that are nearly universal. One is 'Don't lose sight of your enemy.' Another is 'Don't let your emotions control you.'" Natsu announced loudly enough for the spectators to hear him.

"Natsu, don't you know that two comes after one?" Someone yelled from the crowd.

"Two does come after one, congratulations you can count. I didn't number them because none of the rules should be thought of as above the other, they're all of equal importance." Natsu looked down at where he held Erza's hand, keeping her from bringing her sword up to attack him.

This time Natsu spoke quietly, "Another thing to remember. Your weapon is not the only thing that you can use to attack and defend." The grin that disappeared with the interruption was back on his face. Natsu enjoyed nothing so much as a fight, even if Erza wasn't really offering much of one, it was still enough to make him smile.

Erza took the message to heart though. She swung her arm in a wide arcing punch that caught Natsu unawares. Natsu expected Erza to listen to him, but not quite that well, nor quite that quickly.

Erza saw the surprise on Natsu's face when her fist connected with his cheek and let her own fierce grin grow across her face. She may not have been as brash as Natsu used to be, nor was she as obvious about her joy when she was fighting. Fights with possible fatal consequences were where she drew the line though, those weren't quite as much fun for some reason.

Without her magic strengthening her, Erza was only as strong as a regular person could be, a very impressive person, but a person nonetheless. Still she was strong enough to throw it Natsu back several steps and onto his ass.

"That's more like it Erza."

Natsu pumped his legs into the air and flipped backwards to land in a ready stance, a much lower one than he had used before. His stance was so low that he looked like he was attempting to do the splits. Anyone who knew anything about combat could tell that he was still solid and dangerous like that, but he wouldn't be able to move as fast as he did before.

Erza saw that Natsu had shifted his grip on the spear again. His back hand had shifted so that it was nearly at the butt of the weapon and his upper hand wasn't even holding on, it just had the shaft resting on it's palm. Erza could tell that the power from his strikes would be greatly reduced with this grip, and she was very right, Natsu could only get about twenty percent of his full strength behind any attack with this stance and grip combination.

Erza knew this was a good chance for her to land a solid blow on Natsu. She just needed to avoid the thrust that she was sure he was going to make. She had learned her lesson on her first furious rush. This time she made a much slower, more measured advance, waiting for any indication of his attack.

She was right to worry about the thrust. Natsu's shoulders seemed to twitch and suddenly the spear was directly in front of her. She barely managed to roll to the left of the sharp head, earning herself a cut on the shoulder.

It seemed like she had just passed the first thrust when the spear reappeared directly in her path, just slightly to left side of her chest, making the easier dodge to the right. She didn't make a conscious decision when she dodged that time, instinct took over and moved her so that she wouldn't get hurt this time.

This was exactly what Natsu was waiting for. Instinct is all well in good in a fight, but a person's instincts were all about self preservation unless you trained them to react the right way in a fight. Like Natsu had.

Erza registered Natsu's spear appearing in front of her again, aimed at the middle of her shins this time. There was no way that she could dodge and avoid both being injured and tripped by her opponent. She didn't have time to think of that though, her instincts had already hijacked her body again and told it to jump over the obstacle that just appeared.

Erza watched Natsu's mouth form a smirk that, in any other situation, would have made her squirm and blush. In this situation, though, it signaled a very bad thing. She had just done exactly what he wanted her to do.

Erza had pushed off the ground with enough force to sail directly over her pink haired opponent, but she watched in horrid fascination as Natsu's legs came back together to just a little wider than shoulder width apart. His spear retracted half the distance it had originally extended and slapped into his waiting forward hand that took a solid grip.

Erza watched all that happen in what seemed like slow motion, even though it happened in the blink of an eye. Natsu was still moving in slow motion when he twisted his powerfully muscled body and used all of his impressive strength to swing his spear at Erza's stomach while she was completely unable to dodge. Even if she was willing to break the rules and use her magic, she wasn't sure if she could manage to get out of the way.

While Erza knew that she couldn't dodge the incoming blow, she also knew that it didn't mean she could do nothing about it. She angled her body as best she could to minimize the impact area. She brought her sword in front of her to deflect some of the force. A small part of her mind marveled at that. Not so long ago, the beginning of this fight, she wouldn't have even thought to deflect the attack. She would have attempted to over power it in a straight on block that pitted her strength against her opponent.

"Sorry Erza, but I think this is it for today." Natsu said in the brief second before his weapon struck hers and was deflected a little to the side.

Erza felt the collision all the way up to her shoulder with a fierce tingling sensation. The spear was deflected, but not nearly enough to truly protected her. It managed to shift the weapon down from her chest to her stomach and bled of a fair amount of the force, but not nearly as much as she wished. She knew that she was going to be bruised tomorrow.

When the spear hit her it forced all the air in her lungs out, causing a harsh gasp to sound out, loud enough for even the spectators in the back to hear. It hurt. It really, really hurt. That wasn't the worst part though, she had almost forgot that she was in the air when she crashed down onto the hard packed dirt of their sparring area.

The lack of air in her lungs apparently wasn't a complete lack because the ground forced another gasp from Erza's mouth, not nearly as loud as the one before though. Embarrassingly enough, the air escaping her mouth was accompanied by a healthy amount of saliva and dignity.

Erza's back hit first, snapping her head and legs down to the ground immediately after the original impact. It caused a flicker of black to cross her vision, something that hadn't happened since she and Mirajane used to knock each other out when they were young. After the flicker passed, she tried to force herself into at least a sitting position so that she could regain a little of that missing dignity.

Unfortunately, it didn't seem like that was something that was in the cards for Erza Scarlet, Titania of Fairy Tail. The moment her head lifted off the surprisingly comfortable dirt, warm, black fuzziness began to envelop her mind. She realized, rather belatedly, that Natsu had knocked her out without even breaking a sweat or using anything besides basic tactics.

Suddenly the Dragon Slayer from her thoughts popped into her fast-fading field of vision. His mouth was moving, but she couldn't really hear anything aside from a faint ringing. That same part of her brain from earlier noted that it was concussions that caused that symptom and also told her that hers was just on the worse side of mild.

Lucky for Erza, she was still with it enough to read his lips, he was saying 'Sorry, I got carried away. I'll be there when you wake up.'

The warm, caring look on Natsu's face, combined with the small smile that he reserved for only his most important people and his words made a warm glow come to life in Erza's chest. It was different than the raging fire that was the lust she felt when she was with Natsu before and from the smoldering desire that she had always felt to some degree when she was around him shortly after they both went through puberty. It was even still different from every feeling that Levy and Mira gave her after Natsu left. This feeling needed Natsu to be the catalyst. It left a soft smile on her face that she wasn't sure she had ever used before, but instinctively knew that only Natsu and her girls would ever have it truly turned on them. No matter how much she loved all the people that she called Family at Fairy Tail, they just would never be able to get into the spot in her heart that Natsu, Levy, and Mira occupied. It was full.

Before anyone could really say anything, Natsu bent down and scooped Erza into his arms. He sent a quick look to Mira and Levy, silently telling them that he would be taking her for medical attention. He didn't actually know that they got his message, he wasn't as close with them after all, but he was fairly sure that they got the message.

Natsu heard Gray and Master Makarov both yell for him to stop, but he wasn't listening, well he was, but he wasn't going to stop. He needed to get this done, for Erza's sake and his own peace of mind. He was never more glad that he trained as hard as he did because he was still able to outrun Jet even with the added weight of the beautiful, and usually scary, Erza Scarlet.

Natsu had arrived and was already through the door when Jet finally caught up to him.

"Natsu! Stop! Porlyusica isn't there anymore, she disappeared last year and she hasn't come back yet." Jet managed to get out before putting his hands on his knees and gasping in his lost breath.

"She didn't disappear, I needed her help and she came to help me. She should be back by now though. If not, I'll go get her." Natsu only paused in his movement, he didn't look back before continuing into the legendary doctor's home, gently laying Erza down in one of the waiting beds.

"She went to where you were? What did you need her to do for you?" Jet followed him into the house, completely forgetting that he is entering the domain of the scariest woman in Fiore. Not even Master Makarov was willing to cross her in any way and he was just as reckless as the rest of the guild, if not more reckless.

"There was a town I came across that was hit really hard by some sort of disease. I wanted her to help the orphanage that was there. So I came here and made her come with me to help the kids." Natsu explained, still not looking up from the beautiful woman laid out in front of him, looking completely at peace.

He was still watching Erza's gentle breathing when he heard the door slam. The only indication that he was aware of what was going on in the world around him was the slight tensing of his shoulders, like he was expecting to get smacked from behind, and a small smirk.

"Damn you! Whoever you are, get the hell out of my house!" Porlyusica only got three steps into her home before she started yelling at the damn humans that were in her hollowed out treehouse.

Jet made a horrible squeaking sound that would have earned him endless amounts of teasing if the rest of the guild heard it. Lucky for him though, just Natsu and Porlyusica were present and conscious enough to hear his girly sound.

"Bye Natsu! I'm getting the hell out of here." Jet took no time scrambling through the only window in the room and taking off for the guild hall to tell everyone the good, but scary, news about the legendary healer being back from her trip.

A bare second later, Porlyusica came rushing into the room, brandishing a broom as if it was a weapon of mass destruction. To be fair, in her hands it just might be one of the deadliest weapons known to wizard kind.

The pink haired healer didn't spare a thought for which room she was in or who might possibly be brave enough to take their chances with an enraged Porlyusica wielding her favoured weapon. She swung the moment she was within range of the body sitting next to one of the cots she kept for the patients that she rarely accepted into her home.

Luckily for her, and Natsu, he was well known for being able to shrug off attacks that would have killed any lesser wizard and probably should have killed him as well. The broom that had been through so much abuse that Makarov would have sworn up and down that it was the same broom that she used to beat him over the head with and even his hard noggin wasn't enough to break it. Natsu was a different story though, the broom came into contact with his shoulder and cracked. Then when it hit the rest of his back it snapped a third of the way up the handle.

Porlyusica paused for a moment in her attack/reprimand for breaking into her house before she said, "Oh, it's you Natsu. What can I do for you?" She looked down at the piece of broom handle in her hand, letting a lone tear escape her eye at the loss of such an amazingly versatile tool. Then she tossed it into the corner where the rest of her broken pieces of things she used to hit Fairy Tail wizards with were laying.

"I need a hand. I need you to fix something that I did without even realizing I was doing it." Natsu answered.

He didn't beg or plead, but Porlyusica could tell that he was truly upset over whatever it was he did and decided she would help in any way she could. "Damn humans, always wanting something from me," she grumbled under her breath, she knew that Natsu could hear her and that he knew she was just performing the usual ritual before getting down to business, "Alright, so what's wrong with her?"

"I'm not sure if you'll be able to do anything about it, but the only other person that I think could possibly help is Master Makarov and he wouldn't help even if I did ask him to. Grumpy old pervert." Natsu still smiled a little bit at the thought of his adopted grandfather.

"I don't think I'm going to like what this is," Porlyusica sighed, "I asked what the problem is Natsu, don't make me get another broom." The healer swung her little fist in his direction, but the rather unimpressive sight did nothing to lessen the shiver that ran down his spine at her menacing tone.

"Yes ma'am!" Natsu saluted on reflex alone. "Okay. So I think my magic is affecting Erza's libido. It probably was before I left, but it wasn't too noticeable because she wasn't currently in a relationship with anyone. Now that I'm back, it seems to have gotten worse. Even Levy seemed a little concerned about Erza's behavior since I've gotten back." Natsu wrung his hands in worry, he didn't like changing the woman he loved, especially when he wasn't even consciously doing it.

"Hmmm," Porlyusica rubbed her chin gently, turning back to her potion-making table, "So, you want me to somehow make it so that your magic can no longer influence her without her express consent?" She asked, guessing almost exactly what he wanted, successfully showing off why she was the best healer that anyone knew of.

"Almost. I need it to not block my magic if she is seriously hurt and unconscious." Natsu knew he was being picky, but he didn't want it to possibly block his magic when it's the only thing that will save her life.

"Well I can't quite do that, but I can make it so that whenever she is critically injured, it won't block your magic." Porlyusica was already mixing up what she would need to the procedure. Almost as if she knew about that stipulation in advance too, but didn't want to seem too psychic. Wouldn't want to freak out the guy that literally was raised by a Dragon King after all.

"She might also have a little bit of bruising on her torso. The spar we had got a little rougher than I originally intended." Natsu said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

He only got an annoyed grunt in return. Not actually telling him that she would have found out or that she already knew about the bruising, but still somehow getting it across to him that she didn't need him to tell her that.

Natsu wasn't sure if she had anything else to say to him and was about to ask, then he rethought his plan. Without telling her that he was leaving, he started to head out of the healer's home. Right when he opened the door she told him that she would be unconscious until at least tomorrow morning and that he was welcome to come back at any time throughout the night, as long as he didn't make a racket.

Natsu gave a hum to let her know that he heard her final bit of information. He gently shut the door to the healer's treehouse and disappeared into the forest, heading back to the guild to cross a few things off of his to-do list. Like talk to a certain black haired popsicle.

Back at the hall, all that anyone was talking about was Natsu and Erza's spar. Most couldn't believe that Erza lost and were currently in a state of semi-catatonic shock. The rest of the people in the guild were evenly split between saying Natsu got insanely strong in the time that he was gone, and the Natsu got insanely lucky in that spar.

Gray and Lucy were in a darker, less traveled corner of the guild. Lucy was sitting on top of Gray's lap, making more than one person avoid going over there to talk to the couple, thinking the worst of one of the most PDA couples in the entire guild.

Those people were wrong about what the busty blonde and scarred stripper were talking about. Both were more than a little concerned about Erza, but knew that there was no way Natsu would even think about hurting another guild member, let alone Erza Scarlet. Mostly they were trying to figure out a way to break the news of their failure to keep the team together except for missions that Team Natsu was specifically asked for. Even those had dwindled after word got out that Team Natsu no longer contained Natsu Dragneel and that no one knew where the pink haired Dragon Slayer had disappeared to.

"I know, Lucy, I know that Natsu would never hurt Erza, but Natsu might not be the same kind of person that he was when he left." Gray carefully explained to Lucy, who was being more than a little stubborn on her point. "Hell, I'm not even sure if the Natsu we knew was even real, or if it was all an act." Gray thought back to the way Natsu was acting when they kicked him off of the team.

"There is no way someone can fake caring for the people around them that much. Not the way Natsu cared anyways." Lucy rebutted, a small grin on her face as she remembered the first time she met Natsu. She _knew_ that you couldn't fake something like that.

"Alright, alright. You win, you're probably right." Gray sighed, placing a quick peck directly on Lucy's plump lips in an effort to stop her continuing argument that she would have went on with, despite him giving in.

Unfortunately for the ice wizard and his blonde bombshell, there was a crash right next to their table.

Looking down at the pile of what appeared to be the kindling sized remains of three tables and pieces of whatever was on top of them at the time of the incident. Amongst the stirring fire wood was a body that was topped with a furry, striped hat.

"Jet, you gotta remember to slow down before you come through the doors." Gray laughed at the groaning speed demon.

"Yeah, yeah," Jet grumbled as he shifted the rubble off of himself, "I came to let you know that Natsu moved Erza to Porlyusica's," Jet held up a hand when he saw Lucy open her mouth to tell him that the old healer wasn't back from wherever she went yet. "I told him that she wasn't there, but she walked in right after he told me that she would be back soon and that he was the reason she was gone."

Lucy and Gray looked torn between tearing off to go check on their sometimes teammate and going off to find Natsu and smack him around a little for taking the guild's most accomplished magical healer away. Sure they both knew that he wouldn't ask for her to leave without a good reason, but Gray could have really used some faster healing when he had that groin injury. It made both him and Lucy more than a little grumpy that he was benched in the bedroom.

Neither of the amorous duo really felt all that comfortable going to the cute, innocent Wendy with the injury. How do you explain that you ripped a crotch muscle when you were thrusting too hard against the restraints that your partner had tied to the kitchen table with? Especially when the attending healer is like a little sister to you, and not the little sister that you talk about your sex life with, the little sister that you want to shield from all the dirty parts of life.

"Alright." Lucy eventually told Jet, seeing that he was waiting for either a question or a thanks, but neither of them were really capable of asking any questions at the moment, "Thanks for letting us know Jet, but you should tell Master too."

Jet nodded as a 'you're welcome' then took off to Master Makarov's office. Silently sending up a prayer to any deity or demon that was listening that he wouldn't walk in while the old pervert was reading this months bathing suit issue of Sorcerer Weekly, again.

"So, do you want to go talk to Natsu then?" Gray asked, carefully shifting the deeply thinking Lucy into standing at the end of the table.

Natsu spoke from right behind Gray, "I would like to talk to you, Gray."

Gray jumped nearly four feet in the air and came down in his standard casting stance when he heard the voice of his old rival. Lucy didn't react in nearly as dignified a manner as Gray did. She dropped to her knees with the legs on either side of her body, her pert bum sitting on the slats of the floor, and covered her head with her arms while letting out an ear-piercing "Kya!"

Just as quickly as Gray dropped into a fighting stance, he pulled out of it to pretend like he didn't react like a jumpy child. It didn't work since pretty much everyone looked at them when they heard Lucy's squeal. It did manage to make it seem like he wasn't as hostile towards Natsu though, since he didn't attack him for sneaking up on him.

Gray didn't verbally answer the disturbingly serious Natsu. With a nod, he turned, helping Lucy to her feet in the process, grabbed his girlfriend's hand in his and led Natsu out of the guild and towards the park that they had found Levy and Team Shadow Gear in when Phantom Lord attacked. Not a lot of people spent a whole lot of time there since finding three beaten, half naked wizards hanging unconscious from a tree.

Gray and Lucy sat on one of the two benches that were facing each other in a little sitting area that the mayor of Magnolia put there in hopes of drawing people to the park again. They were very careful to make sure that their still entwined hands were showing to the Dragon Slayer that say opposite from them.

"I see that congratulations are in order." Natsu gestured at the hands, smiling benignly at the couple. Their shocked looks let him know that they were expecting a different reaction. "To be honest, I'm glad you guys are dating. Now people won't tell me how cute Lucy and I would look together and it will stop people from assuming that we're dating." Natsu laughed at the relieved expression on Gray's face and the disturbed one on Lucy's.

"People actually said those things to you?" She shouted, waving her fist menacingly at him in what, Natsu assumed, was a threat to tell the truth.

"Yes. A lot of our clients did, a few of the guild members that we weren't as close of friends with, and some of the people here in town all said things like that to me all the time." Natsu frowned a little, "Do you mean that no one said anything like that to you?" He asked.

Gray looked to Lucy, waiting for her look of intense concentration to pass because he knew that she was carefully combing through her memories. He knew she found the answer when her face suddenly glowed an impressive shade of red.

"Umm," She squeaked, cleared her throat, "I might have not realized what they were saying and might have, kind of, agreed with all they were saying." Her voice was quiet and so high pitched that Gray almost couldn't hear her words and Natsu would have had to lip read them if his hearing wasn't so sensitive.

Gray's face looked like laughter and discontent were warring for dominance and that combined with the hilarity of Lucy cluelessly perpetuating that rumor was too much for the Dragon Slayer. Natsu burst out with a deep, rolling belly laugh that would have woken everyone within a block if it were night time. He laughed good and hard for several minutes, Gray joining him immediately after his first belt of laughter. Lucy fuming silently in her embarrassment.

Once the laughing men had gotten themselves under control, taking far longer than Lucy thought it should have, Gray and Natsu both set a serious look onto their face. Both of them knew that this wasn't exactly the type of conversation that had a place for levity. Which impressed Natsu because Gray had absolutely no idea what he wanted to talk about.

"So what did you want to talk about, Flame Brain?" Gray asked with a small smile at the use of his old nickname for Natsu.

Natsu answered his smile with one of his own before reverting back to a serious expression, "I wanted to know why you hated me before?" He asked, rather bluntly actually.

Gray didn't think he heard him right at first, "What? Did you just ask why I hated you?"

"Yes."

"What the hell made you think I hated you?" He asked incredulously, subconsciously stripping his shirt off, much to the chagrin of his girlfriend.

"We always used to butt heads, but you seemed really serious about our fights." Natsu explained.

"Well, yeah, you have to take fights with your rival seriously, even if their only guild hall brawls." Gray answered just as seriously, with just a hint of a 'duh' tone.

Confusion washed across Natsu's face, understanding following directly on it's heels, then embarrassment pushed its way onto his face. It seemed like it was hunkering down to stay for a little while.

Natsu reflected on how much he still didn't actually know about human interaction. It appeared that being raised by Igneel still affected him a lot more than he thought because that reasoning never crossed his mind before now. Judging by the 'how stupid are you?' look on Lucy's face, it was a fairly obvious reason for Gray being so serious about their fights all the time.

Then Natsu got an idea, a smirk made its way onto his face as he said, "So, does that mean I should have actually been trying in our fights?" He knew that he was trying fairly hard when they were kids, but he found himself trying less and less as time wore on and his power outstripped Gray's. When they were teens, Natsu saw their fights as more of a stress reliever than anything, like punching a wall when you're really angry, but the wall fights back. Much more relieving, especially since you don't have a wall to fix, or replace, after.

"Fuck you, Flame Brain, I know you were trying." Gray scoffed back.

Natsu just shrugged in response, not knowing how to respond to that without either lying through his teeth or being brutally honest. He wasn't really in a big hurry to do either one with Gray right now. He didn't have time for him to prove himself the better fighter with Gray, he still needed to get back to Erza's side.

"Natsu! We need to talk to you!" Two voices yelled from the edge of the park.

The trio sitting on the benches looked over to where the voices came from. Standing a respectful distance away, far enough that even with enhanced senses they wouldn't be able to hear what they were talking about, were Levy and Mira.

Natsu frowned at first, wondering why they needed to talk to him. He hadn't done anything since the spar with Erza that they would be involved with.

Pushing his wonderings from the fore front of his mind, Natsu gestured the duo of lovely ladies over to where they were sitting. There was enough room for everyone to sit down, so why not talk where they could sit comfortably?

The two walked over calmly, which for some reason worried Natsu. He couldn't quite figure out why, but his instincts were screaming at him to run away from the beautiful women. He was half way to standing and doing exactly that when he realized what he was doing and forced himself back into his seat. The pink haired slayer very much wanted to follow his instincts though, they had very rarely led him astray and this time, he was sure, was no exception.

"Hi Gray, Lucy." Mira began sweetly, "Are you two done with Natsu?"

"Uhm, yeah." Gray answered carefully, his instincts were blaring at him to be careful here.

"Good." Levy answered, "We need to speak to him in private." She finished pointedly, also in a sweet tone.

"No problem." Gray answered before Lucy could open her mouth to ask any questions of her blue haired friend and without a second thought he scooped Lucy up into his arms and speed walked his way out of the park. Not wanting to seem like he was running away, but also not wanting to spend anymore time around the scary women.

Natsu was starting to sweat at the looks the two were directing at him. Neither one was overtly confrontational, or even less that pleasant, but there was an undercurrent that he couldn't quite place, aside from knowing it wasn't good.

"What can I do for you lovely ladies?" Natsu tentatively asked.

"I need you to explain why you took our girlfriend somewhere without talking to us about it first." Mira told him, but he knew that it was a demand that would be obeyed, or else.

"Well she needed medical attention, so I took her to the most accomplished medic in the area." Natsu answered, still very careful with his words so he didn't set off an attack.

"Wendy hasn't seen Erza all day. So where did you take her?" Levy wasn't anywhere near as good at controlling her emotions as Mira was and some of her fury leaked into her voice.

"I took her to Porlyusica." Natsu blurted out quickly, "I needed her to do something else for me too."

"Really? What was that?" Mira asked, holding Levy down in her seat. She was already half way standing and ready to start on her way to Porlyusica's tree house.

Natsu looked at the two, wondering how they would react if he told them the truth. Or how they would react if he lied to them and then they found out the truth later on. Natsu knew he was a terrible liar in the first place. Misleading, easy, avoiding the question, usually easy, but lying, hardest thing he had ever done.

"Shit. I don't think you guys are going to like this, but I needed her to figure out a way to block my magic from entering Erza's system." Natsu sighed, mentally allocating at least an hour for this conversation.

"What? I thought that spar was the way you figured out to solve that problem." Levy leaned in, knowing that this was a good way to learn about the Dragon Slayer's magic. The books that she had found were very informative, but this was something that was never covered in any of the texts that she could decipher.

"Well that led to the solution I thought of. I figured that if anyone would be able to keep my magic from affecting Erza, it would be Porlyusica." Natsu explained, "The only problem with that was getting Erza to go to Porlyusica. She wouldn't go without a good reason and I really didn't want to tell her the real reason because she would probably push to use the other option for stopping the influence. The only problem with that would be my magic influencing her to make that choice." Natsu frowned, hoping that the two were capable to follow that.

He looked into the faces of Mira and Levy. It was obvious that Levy was completely with him on the explanation, but was probably far ahead of him in every facet of that train of thought. Mira appeared to be struggling with his words, but not because she didn't follow, more that she had other questions based on what he said.

"So, how come your magic hasn't ever affected me or Levy? I know you thought we were attractive long before we started _enjoying_ Erza's company." Mira asked, surprising Levy with the question, as she hadn't thought of that before. Natsu just sighed, he was hoping that he didn't have to go into this, even though it wasn't really his choice.

"I did find you both attractive, very attractive in fact, but that is only on piece of the whole that caused this whole issue." Natsu smiled broadly at the two, making sure that they knew he wasn't just saying that, making Levy blush a deep crimson and even the widely worshipped Mira had a tinge of pink on her cheeks. "A large majority of the reason Erza was affected is that my magic picked her out of all the girls around me. She was, and still is, the most compatible with my magic and instincts. It was probably a close race, but it's not like my magic is really sentient. I couldn't talk to it about it's decisions or anything like that."

Mira frowned in thought. She was glad that she wasn't totally ignored by Natsu when they were growing up. She had always thought the pink haired slayer was incredibly cute, but back then she really didn't know how to properly express her interest in him and picked on him, just like any other young kid would.

"So what happened if it turned out that you didn't like her, or that she didn't like you, or even that she disappeared?" Levy asked, wanting to get to the bottom of this, she had always like puzzles.

"In order. Nothing, I am in control, not my magic. It would have eventually chosen someone else. Same thing if she didn't like me, but I probably would have tried to win her over if I liked her despite her not liking me. If she had disappeared I would have found her." It was really that simple for him, if she was that important to him, she wouldn't be able to get rid of him until she made it clear that he wasn't wanted.

Levy quickly took in any and all information he offered, broke it down, and filed it relative to what she already knew about the Dragon Slayer that one of her girlfriends would probably end up with, and if she was lucky, she would end up with him too. She was formulating new questions at the same time she was taking apart the new information.

Natsu noticed that she wasn't even remotely close to finished answering question, but between all the time for thinking and talking it was getting close to the time that he thought they should be getting to Erza's side.

Natsu stood up, breaking Levy's thoughts away from what she was going to ask next and instead she asked, "What's going on?" Levy knew that Natsu wouldn't interrupt her like this without a good reason. He was always really nice to her and good about letting her ask all of her questions or saying all that she had to say on a subject.

"As much as I would like to continue talking about this with you two, we all need to get to Porlyusica's. It's still early, but there is a distinct possibility that Erza will be waking up soon." Natsu saw Mira come out of her deep thoughts at the mention of one of her girlfriends possibly imminent awakening.

Natsu, knowing that it was considered polite, now at least, held a hand out to each of the ladies. Both smiled beatifically at the slayer, taking his offered hand gently in their own soft hands. Natsu marveled at the smooth, supple skin of their hands as it rubbed against his own rough, calloused hand. His thoughts strayed down the path of 'I wonder if the rest of their skin was a warm, soft, and smooth.'

He quickly shook that thought out of his head, but he saw the sly smirk on Mira's face and knew he was caught by at least one of the duo. He had another brief thought sprint through his head 'Can I really handle more that one girl?' It almost made him second guess his silent decision to try and make his and Erza's relationship work with the one that she already had with the two standing next to him, but he quickly squashed that thought. He would do anything to make Erza happy, if that required him making the other two happy, then he would do it to the best of his ability.

"Alright, let's go see out favourite Knight." Natsu announced.

He turned and led Mira and Levy off at an easy pace. He knew that both of them could have handled a brisker pace, but it wasn't necessary and he was really enjoying the bonding they were doing, even if it was mostly interrogating him so far. He knew that he would still have to ask a lot more questions after disappearing for so long with no communication.

Porlyusica was expecting Natsu to be back relatively quickly, but she really didn't expect him to bring the two ladies that he had with him. It only took a few seconds of eye contact for the two pinkettes to communicate exactly what was going on. The healer took a few seconds to privately cackle at what the young man was getting himself in to.

She silently directed them to the bed that the red haired knight was in. All three of them were surprised to see that Erza's upper torso was completely wrapped in bandages, leaving her arms bare. Or at least they were pretty sure that her arms were bare.

"What the hell **Natsu**?!" Mira asked, her demonic aura flaring with her anger, changing her tone to her Satan voice. Her killing intent was palpable in the tiny room in the little home that was carved out of the enormous tree. " **I thought you didn't really hurt her?!** "

Natsu wasn't sure how to answer Mira's accusation, or the silent accusation in Levy's eyes that was at least as frightening, but far less angering. His newly enhanced dragon instincts, thanks to his extensive training, were screaming at him to take this bitch down a notch. They screamed that he couldn't let her think that she could question his actions now, she would think that it's okay to question them later when they didn't really have room for questions.

Natsu knew that his instincts were right, but he couldn't react the way that they were screaming at him to. He needed to handle this very carefully. He wasn't afraid of Mira, not even remotely close, but he was scared of the damage that fighting with her could cause. Natsu knew that fighting her would likely cause a lot of collateral damage to the general area. He wasn't that worried about that, he could rebuild Porlyusica's house twice as nice as this one and still manage to keep the nature feeling of the home. No, he was far more worried about the damage to both his relationship with her, her relationship with Erza, and his own relationship with the redhead.

He took a long, deep breath to calm his own ire, "She was wearing a long sleeve shirt with I brought her here. Porlyusica needed access to Erza's arms, apparently, and wrapped her torso in bandages to protect her modesty because she lacked a sleeveless top to put on her."

Natsu stared down the white haired demon, daring her with his eyes, daring her to do something, anything. She held his gaze for a few moments before looking away and letting her dangerous aura bleed away.

"So what's with the markings on her arms?" Levy asked, seeing the obvious reason for the lack of sleeves.

The other two took the opportunity to look down at whatever it was that Porlyusica did to solve Erza's affliction.

Erza's arms appeared to be tattooed in an orangey red tribal flame pattern. It was breath taking, the way that the colouring appeared to shift and change like real flames. Levy traced a finger lightly up her girlfriend's new markings. She noticed that the inked on flames were warm to the touch. She followed them all the way up to Erza's collar bone where there were to flares stretching across them to meet in the hollow of her throat where a depiction of a flame was carefully drawn.

"I can't believe the way you managed to do it like this." Natsu laughed, talking to the healer that was standing silently behind the trio of friends.

"It was the only way to make sure it would only block your magic, not everyone's." Porlyusica answered, making Mira and Levy jump in surprise, both having forgot about the healer in their respective anger and wonder.

Levy recovered first and asked, "What did she do?"

"She used my magic to form the base of whatever it is she did." Natsu created a small flame in the palm of his hand and held it up next to Erza's arm. Erza's markings changed to a pure red near the flame. "It's actively blocking my magic from getting close to her."

Levy stared on in wonder at how it worked. She so very much wanted to ask how Porlyusica did it, but she had previously learned her lesson when it came to the grumpy, human-hating healer. Don't ask questions, no matter how good or bad they were, unless you wanted to be chased out of the house with a broom.

"Natsu move your flames back." Mira said, a tone of wonder in her voice, "See that, the tattoo things are the same colour as your flames." She smiled at Erza and then at Natsu, "I've always thought your flames were beautiful, and now the girl I love gets to wear them." She smiled even wider at the small blush that appeared on Natsu's face and silently marked a tick in her mental 'Mira' column doing a little to regain her lead that had dwindled since Natsu returned.

Both Levy and Mira unknowingly had the same thought, 'I wonder why the orange and red don't clash horrifically with her hair?' Mira was a well know fashion goddess, but even Levy, a self-admitted fashion dunce, knew that orange should not be worn by someone with deep crimson hair like Erza had.

Natsu's mind was blissfully blank at the moment. Just absorbing the nice comment from Mira and enjoying the relaxing time they had while waiting for Erza to wake up. He knew the relaxing part wouldn't last long after the crimson knight woke up.

Unluckily, just as he was beginning to fully enjoy the down time, Erza's eyelids began to flutter and quickly popped open. Her beautiful chocolate orbs shifted wildly for a split second before focusing on him with deadly intent.

"What did you do?" She asked quietly, hurt in her voice. She keenly felt the absence of his magic flowing into her system, "Did you not want me?" Tears started gathering in her eyes at the question.

 **The end for now my friends.**

 **Please read and review**

 **-GrizP**


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